Socioeconomic and demographic barriers to assessing ante natal care services among women of child bearing age in Wushishi local government area, Niger State, Nigeria

Background and Objectives: Access to Ante Natal Care (ANC) remains a major barrier to maternal healthcare particularly in most developing countries thereby leading to high mortality rate of women and children. Despite the number of health facilities available in Wushishi Local Government Area (WLGA), quite a number of women of child bearing age are still not accessing ANC, and most times many lose their lives during delivery at home, some end up with complications or lose their baby at births. The question now is why are pregnant women not attending ante natal care in health facilities around them? The aim of this study was to determine the barriers in accessing ANC among the women of child bearing age in WLGA. Methods: Structured questionnaires were administered to 200 women. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the characteristics of the respondents and Chi Square test was used to establish the relationship between socioeconomic and demographic variables and ANC visits. Findings: We found out that the location of the respondents, lack of support from husband were two most significant demographic and socioeconomic barriers to access to ANC in WLGA. Conclusion and Global Health Implications: The findings from this study have informed policy recommendations of the need to focus on strong advocacies towards encouraging men to participate more actively in their wives reproductive health. It also involves making cost of ANC affordable if not total cost free for all pregnant women. The need for building of well staffed and equipped health facilities centers in rural area.