The postnatal period is critical to the health and survival of a mother and her new-born. This study sets out to assess the utilization of postnatal care services in Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Niger State, Nigeria. With the objectives of identifying the availability of postnatal care services in the Primary Health Care facilities, determining the women’s utilization of the services, and to identify the factors influencing the utilization of postnatal care services in the PHC facilities in Niger State. The study Utilizes the cross-sectional survey design and the instrument adopted was a questionnaire. The multistage sampling technique was used to select 902 women of childbearing age. Data was analysed using tables, frequencies and percentages. The result of this study showed the socio-demographic characteristics of the female respondents. It was observed that majority of the respondents are within the age of 18-25years. Majority of the respondents are Muslims who cut across the four major ethnic groups of Gwari, Hausa, Kambari and Nupe in the State. Further findings observed that majority are married with tertiary education. Lastly, majority of the female respondents are either housewives or civil servants and their children are less than five (5). The socio-demographic findings of the respondents husband revealed that they had tertiary education, majority are either farmer or civil servants and majority have extended families while majority had one wife and majorities wife’s position is first. This study also revealed that PHC clinics are available in majority of the communities and the estimated duration of trekking time to the nearest facilities in the community is 15-34minutes. this study revealed that the utilization of postnatal services in the communities is poor and the reason for non-utilization of post-natal services are lack of drugs in the facilities and l This study observe that women with higher level of formal education utilize the postnatal services more than those without or with lower levels of formal education and similarly, the respondents husband’s level of education was found to have influenced the women’s utilization of postnatal services. It is recommended that health education programmes should be intensified to encourage
- S. | N. | Garba | sngarba.nur@buk.edu.ng | +2348033667081, E. | E. | Anyebe | ejembianyebe_@gmail.com | 08036422771, A. | K. | Salihu | kombooo2012@gmail.com | 08061307902 , A. | H. | Ibrahim | ahibrahim02@gmail.com | 08035570017, U. | N. | Jibril | umaribna@gmail.com | 08065482455
- Assessment; Utilization; Postnatal care.
- Lautech New Edition April 2020 Article 7
