Abstract

Appropriate antenatal care (ANC) is one of the pillars of this initiative. Antenatal care is considered as a backbone of obstetrical services of any health of pregnant women and is the way in which maternal and fetal complications are detected and managed. It highlights the care of antenatal mothers as an important element in maternal healthcare as appropriate care will lead to successful pregnancy outcome and   healthy babies. Safe motherhood by providing good antenatal care (ANC) is very important to reduce maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate and to achieve millennium development goals. Mothers and children comprise approximately 71.14 percent of the population of the developing countries. MMR among Indian women national average of MMR is 212 per 100,000 live births (SRS-2007-2009) which in itself is very high compared to the international scenario. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in India is 40.5 deaths/1,000 live births (SRS-2013), In male 39.2 deaths/1,000 live births and in female 41.8 deaths/1,000 live births is compared to the IMR in Uttarakhand is 34 deaths/1,000 live births (SRS, 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2015 around 830 women died every day from problems in pregnancy and childbirth only 5 of the women who died lived in high income countries, the rest of the women lived in low income countries. The objective of the present study is awareness about the ANC among pregnant women, knowledge and  practices regarding elements of ANC  care and to give suggestions to improve the maternal health practices. The study area: Haldwani (Nainital), study population: all pregnant women registered in Government hospital in Haldwani, study design: cross sectional study, study period: January, 2017 to February, 2017. Graphical presentation is used to describe the results of the various factors responsible for ANC.

The study shows that ANC women, 15.56 % are illiterate so they are not aware about their health during their pregnancy and health workers don’t provide them adequate information about the Government schemes. Maximum number of pregnant women are aware of their health and fetus, visit health centers regularly for their ANC checkups. They are agreed that smoking and alcohol consumption is bad for fetus as it causes growth retardation. Some of the pregnant women are agreed for the IFA tablet supplementation during pregnancy instead of that they are not taking IFA tablets during their pregnancy. Some of the respondents are delivered their baby at home because of their fear of miscarriage or risk at hospital.

Keywords: Antenatal care (ANC), Pregnant women, MMR, WHO, Health.