Factors Associated with Discontinuing Four Antenatal Care Standard Visits in the Musanze Sector, Rwanda

Abstract

Background: In Rwanda, a total of 98% of women attend at least one ANC visit; however, only 47% complete all four standard ANC visits, and 56% of women go for their first visit before the 4th month of pregnancy. Objective: to determine factors associated with low levels of attendance at the fourth standard antenatal care visit. Materials and methods: Applying a cross-sectional study design, a sample of 8 health providers and 67 pregnant women who completed 4 ANC standard visits or who failed to attend the 4th ANC visit was selected through a purposive sampling method approach. Using IBM-SPSS, binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with discontinuing four ANC standard visits. Findings: Factors such as lack of knowledge about the role of attending ANC services (p<0.001), thinking that one or two visits is enough (p<0.001) and delivery before the last ANC appointment (p<0.002) were significantly associated with discontinuing four standard ANC visits. Conclusion: Modifiable factors like lack of knowledge on the role of doing ANC, thinking that one or three visits were enough, and delivery before the last ANC appointment were associated with not achieving 4 standard ANC visits.