KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF PREGNANT WOMEN TOWARDS EARLY ANTENATAL CARE AND HOSPITAL DELIVERY IN ABIA STATE SPECIALIST HOSPITAL, AMACHARA.

ABSTRACT The study was carried out to evaluate the Knowledge and Attitude of pregnant women towards early Antenatal Care and Hospital Delivery in Abia State Specialist Hospital, Amachara .The objectives of the study were to ascertain the level of knowledge of pregnant women towards early antenatal and hospital delivery, to ascertain attitude of pregnant women towards early antenatal care and hospital delivery and to ascertain social economic factors that may influence early antenatal and hospital delivery. In view of these, three research questions were formulated. A descriptive research design was used for the study and relevant literature were reviewed. The population for the study were pregnant women attending antenatal care at Abia State Specialist Hospital, Amachara which were 100 in number. There was no sampling because the total population was included in the study. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire and data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple percentages. The result obtained in research question one revealed that majority of the respondent had a good knowledge of antenatal care and hospital delivery while research question two revealed that majority of the respondent accepted that hospital delivery confers better birth outcome whereas research question three revealed that 45(45%) accepted that lack of finance can hinder early antenatal care and hospital delivery. In conclusion, the respondents had a good knowledge about antenatal care and hospital delivery. Based on the findings, recommendations, suggestions for further studies and conclusions were made.