Original Research

Adolescent mothers’ non-utilisation of antenatal care services in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

C. N. Chaibva, J. H. Roos, V. J. Ehlers
Curationis | Vol 32, No 3 | a1219 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v32i3.1219 | © 2009 C. N. Chaibva, J. H. Roos, V. J. Ehlers | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 06 September 2009 | Published: 06 September 2009

About the author(s)

C. N. Chaibva, Department of Health Studies, UNISA, South Africa
J. H. Roos, Department of Health Studies, UNISA, South Africa
V. J. Ehlers, Department of Health Studies, UNISA, South Africa

Full Text:

PDF (358KB)

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancies are high risk obstetric occurrences. Antenatal care (ANC) provides opportunities to recognise and treat obstetric complications, enhancing the pregnancy outcomes for mothers and babies. The purpose of the study was to identify factors influencing adolescents' non-utilisation of ANC services in Bulawayo. The Health Belief Model (HBM) was used to contextualise the study.
A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive research design was adopted, using structured interviews to collect data. Purposive, non-probability sampling was used to conduct structured interviews with 80 adolescent mothers from the postnatal wards who had delivered their babies without attending ANC.
Factors influencing these adolescent mothers’ non-utilisation of ANC services included socio-economic issues, individuals' perceptions about ANC, limited knowledge about ANC, policies and structural barriers. However, these adolescents knew that delivering their babies with skilled attendance could enhance the outcomes for the mothers and babies, would help secure documents to facilitate the acquisition of their children's birth certificates, and that obstetric complications required the services of skilled midwives/doctors. Policy-related issues, such as requiring national identity cards from pregnant adolescents (or from their spouses) prohibited some of them from utilising ANC services.
There is a need to improve adolescents’ reproductive health outreach (including ANC) programmes and to offer free ANC services in Zimbabwe. Restrictive policies, such as the required identity cards of the pregnant adolescents (or their husbands), impacted negatively on the accessibility of ANC services and should be addressed as a matter of urgency in Bulawayo.

Keywords

No related keywords in the metadata.

Metrics

Total abstract views: 4356
Total article views: 4834

 

Crossref Citations

1. Determinants of postnatal service utilisation among mothers in rural settings of Malawi
Precious William C. Phiri, Cheerawit Rattanapan, Aroonsri Mongkolchati
Health & Social Care in the Community  vol: 23  issue: 5  first page: 493  year: 2015  
doi: 10.1111/hsc.12165

2. Adolescent maternal health services utilization and associated barriers in Sub-Saharan Africa: A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis before and during the sustainable development goals
Tadesse Tolossa, Lisa Gold, Merga Dheresa, Ebisa Turi, Yordanos Gizachew Yeshitila, Julie Abimanyi-Ochom
Heliyon  vol: 10  issue: 15  first page: e35629  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35629

3. Timing and Quality of Antenatal Care Among Adolescent Mothers in a Rural Community, Uganda
Vincent Kayemba, Allen Kabagenyi, Patricia Ndugga, Ronald Wasswa, Peter Waiswa
Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics  vol: Volume 14  first page: 45  year: 2023  
doi: 10.2147/AHMT.S374296

4. Barriers to accessing maternal health care amongst pregnant adolescents in South Africa: a qualitative study
Michelle Olivia Erasmus, Lucia Knight, Jessica Dutton
International Journal of Public Health  vol: 65  issue: 4  first page: 469  year: 2020  
doi: 10.1007/s00038-020-01374-7

5. Focused Antenatal Care in urban Ghana: A qualitative study into physical accessibility of maternal health services in Kwabre East Municipality
Akowuah Jones Asafo, Kwarteng Bernard Owusu
Clinical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology  vol: 2  issue: 2  first page: 054  year: 2019  
doi: 10.29328/journal.cjog.1001023

6. The prevalence of pregnancy among adolescent girls and young women across the Southern African development community economic hub: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Clarence S. Yah, Sithembiso Ndlovu, Alison Kutywayo, Nicolette Naidoo, Tshepo Mahuma, Saiqa Mullick
Health Promotion Perspectives  vol: 10  issue: 4  first page: 325  year: 2020  
doi: 10.34172/hpp.2020.51

7. Antenatal Care Service Utilization Among Adolescent Pregnant Women–Evidence From Swabhimaan Programme in India
Prakash H. Fulpagare, Abhishek Saraswat, Konsam Dinachandra, Nikita Surani, Rabi N. Parhi, Sourav Bhattacharjee, Somya S, Apollo Purty, Babita Mohapatra, Nita Kejrewal, Neeraj Agrawal, Vikas Bhatia, Manisha Ruikar, Raj Kumar Gope, Zivai Murira, Arjan De Wagt, Vani Sethi
Frontiers in Public Health  vol: 7  year: 2019  
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00369

8. Influence of school support on early marriage experiences and health services utilization among young orphaned women in Zimbabwe
Winnie Kavulani Luseno, Lei Zhang, Bonita J. Iritani, Shane Hartman, Simbarashe Rusakaniko, Denise Dion Hallfors
Health Care for Women International  vol: 38  issue: 3  first page: 283  year: 2017  
doi: 10.1080/07399332.2016.1191494

9. A qualitative investigation into pregnancy experiences and maternal healthcare utilisation among adolescent mothers in Nigeria
Christiana A. Alex-Ojei, Clifford O. Odimegwu, Lorretta F. C. Ntoimo
Reproductive Health  vol: 20  issue: 1  year: 2023  
doi: 10.1186/s12978-023-01613-z

10. Factors Associated with the Timing and Number of Antenatal Care Visits among Unmarried Compared to Married Youth in Uganda between 2006 and 2016
Peninah Agaba, Monica Magadi, Franklin Onukwugha, Cyprian Misinde
Social Sciences  vol: 10  issue: 12  first page: 474  year: 2021  
doi: 10.3390/socsci10120474

11. Barriers to health-seeking practices during pregnancy among adolescents in rural Blantyre, Malawi
Christina Ruth Mbiza, Abigail Kazembe, Andrew Simwaka
African Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health  vol: 8  issue: 2  first page: 59  year: 2014  
doi: 10.12968/ajmw.2014.8.2.59

12. Patterns of HIV Care Clinic Attendance and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Among Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women Living With HIV in the Context of Option B+ in Zimbabwe
Alison S. Erlwanger, Jessica Joseph, Tendai Gotora, Blandina Muzunze, Joanna Orne-Gliemann, Solomon Mukungunugwa, Tim Farley, Alexio-Zambezi Mangwiro
JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes  vol: 75  issue: 2  first page: S198  year: 2017  
doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001347

13. Antenatal Care Research in East Africa During the Millennium Development Goals Initiative: A Scoping Review
Vivienne Steele, Kaitlin Patterson, Lea Berrang-Ford, Nia King, Manisha Kulkarni, Shuaib Lwasa, Didacus B. Namanya, Sherilee L. Harper
Maternal and Child Health Journal  vol: 26  issue: 3  first page: 469  year: 2022  
doi: 10.1007/s10995-021-03355-5

14. Maternal health service utilisation of adolescent women in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic scoping review
Tensae Mekonnen, Tinashe Dune, Janette Perz
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth  vol: 19  issue: 1  year: 2019  
doi: 10.1186/s12884-019-2501-6