The purpose of this study was to examine the maternal health care seeking behaviour and
pregnancy outcome of pregnant women in two rural communities in Enugu State. The
objectives of study were to: (i) determine the gestational age at which pregnant women
book for Antenatal Care(ANC) in Udi and Abiacommunities, (ii)determine how often
pregnant women attend Antenatal Care(ANC)during the third trimester, (iii) ascertain the
facilities utilized by pregnant women with complications for care and (iv) ascertain their
pregnancy outcome. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. A sample
size of 207 respondents was drawn from a population of 586 pregnant
women. The instrument for data collection was the researcher-developed questionnaire
that was used as an interview guide. Observation guide was also used to corroborate the
findings of the questionnaire. The design of the study was descriptive cross-sectional
survey. Convenience sampling was used to select a sample size of 207 respondents from
a population of 586 pregnant women. Collected data wereanalysed using descriptive
statistics of frequencies and percentages. Chi-square was used to test for significant
association atsignificancelevel of 0.05.
Major findings show that most of the respondents (79.7%) booked for ANC during the
first trimester. On frequency of ANC during the third trimester, 81.1% maintained
weekly attendance while 100% of the respondents with complications accessed care from
health facilities especially the general hospital under skilled healthcare providers. On
pregnancy outcome, 84.5% of the babies cried vigorously at birth and 0.5% did not cry at
all. On maternal delivery outcome, 83.1% were strong to take care of self and baby after
delivery. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between the respondents’
demographic variables (age and educational status) and their healthcare seeking
behaviour. There was no significant association (p > 0.05) between maternal healthcare
seeking behaviour and mothers’ delivery outcome (women that were strong to take care
of self and baby and those that were weak to take care of self and baby after delivery).
There was significant association (p < 0.05) between maternal healthcare seeking
behaviour and babies’ birth outcome (number of babies that cried vigorously at birth and
those that did not cry at all).

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
A woman’s health care seeking behaviour during pregnancy depends a great deal on her
beliefs, culture, experience, educational level, financial status, attitude towards pregnancy,
as well as herautonomy and decision making power. Adele (2010)suggests issues of
importance to include information about pregnancy the woman’s family communicated to
her as a child and whether the pregnancy was planned or unplanned. Garba, Hellandendu,
andAjayi (2011) further explained that long before the advent of modern scientific
medicine, most cultures have among their patterns of life, a body of beliefs and practices
that centre on the recognition and treatment of complications of pregnancy and conduct of
deliveries. Thus, an understanding of appropriate health care seeking behaviour is very
important in achieving the desired pregnancy outcome. Negativebehaviour is highly
implicated in increased morbidity and mortality of mother and baby.
Osubor, Fatusi, and Chiwuzie(2006),suggests Maternal Health Care Seeking Behaviour
(MHCSB) to include the number of visits made to antenatal clinic (ANC) by pregnant
women and their preference for place of delivery.Jain, Nandan and Misra (2006) defined
health seeking behaviour as “a complex outcome of many factors operating at individual,
family and community levels including their biosocial profile, past experiences with health
services, availability of alternative health care providers, and the people’s perception
regarding the efficacy and quality of the services”.