Assessment of focused antenatal care utilization and associated factors in Western Oromia, Nekemte, Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: Despite the fact that quality antenatal care is one of the essential aspects in maternal and child health care, the current perceived quality and associated factors of this service is not well acknowledged in Ethiopia. This study was therefore undertaken to assess focused antenatal care service utilization and associated factors in western Ethiopia. RESULT: This study has measured the utilization of focused antenatal care services in terms of regularity of frequency of attendance, initiation time and completeness of the components. In about 19.8% of mothers attendance was irregular. While than three-fourths 330 (78.6%) started in the second trimester, and 42 (10%) of them commenced in the third trimester. The essential components of the services like counseling on nutrition, family planning, and HIV/AIDS were respectively missing in 1.9%, 8.3% and 7.4% of clients. Providing and receiving quality ANC was found to have emanated from different factors which were related to mothers, providers and facilities. Although the overall ANC utilization noticed deceivingly seems satisfactory, it was not fully comprehensive, focused and not to its current standard. Further efforts in terms of effective planning, monitoring and evaluation activities on the service are therefore strongly recommended.