Antenatal care: Pregnant women’s experiences in public hospitals

Antenatal care is a very crucial part of managing pregnancy, however many pregnant women face challenges in accessing medical examination and routine checks in health facilities particularly the public ones. Most public hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), for instance, are overstretched due to the large number of pregnant women being attended to by […]

Antenatal care is a very crucial part of managing pregnancy, however many pregnant women face challenges in accessing medical examination and routine checks in health facilities particularly the public ones.
Most public hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), for instance, are overstretched due to the large number of pregnant women being attended to by few doctors and other medical personnel. 
Many pregnant women interviewed said their large turnout at public hospitals on antenatal clinic days is because the charges are usually moderate compared to the high rates in private hospitals.
 Although public hospitals still contend with large numbers of pregnant women, the women no longer sleep over in the hospital the night before antenatal as was the case before. The hospitals have devised a system where the women are allotted numbers on each antenatal clinic day.
At the Customs Staff Clinic, women attending for the first time to register for antenatal care must visit the hospital on Fridays as early as between 5.00am – 6.00 am to register. After that, they attend only on Wednesdays and their appointment is booked one Wednesday each month.
The hospital still uses the small building it has been using for years. A big storey building was opened last year but is yet to be put to use.
 Pregnant women leave their homes as early as 5:00 am and must get to the hospital before 6.00am. Then they pick numbers.The staff  write numbers on cut-out cards to indicate the number of women they can attend to each day. Once the numbers are exhausted, all who couldn’t get them, or came late, have to return home and wait for another antenatal clinic day.
 Without the number cards, only emergency cases will be accommodated. The nurses say you are ‘100% late’ when you arrive later than 6:30 am or arrive after the cards are exhausted.
Daily Trust investigation showed that some husbands go to the hospital very early to get the number cards, and reserve seats for their wives who come later in the morning. But health workers stopped them from doing so, insisting that the women must come themselves, as the hospital cannot tolerate family members keeping seats for them.
In addition, any woman attending ANC is at liberty to decide if she will give birth there. Those that choose to give birth there must provide a family member to donate blood some months before she gives birth.
Hospital staff  say the blood is put into the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) blood bank. That way a woman who needs to be transfused with blood during childbirth will not have to pay for the blood. If she happens not to need blood, the donated blood remains with the NBTS in circulation.
Generally, beyond the early morning attendance, pregnant women at the hospital are satisfied with the services they get.
At the Kuje District Hospital, the antenatal day scheduled for every Thursday is always packed full with pregnant women from within and also the surrounding communities.
An expectant mother, Mrs. Helen Adetayo said she attended the same hospital for her first pregnancy and the services were okay, if not for the mammoth crowd she meets every time she comes to the hospital. This leads to long hours of waiting for one’s turn, she said.
 She said if you want to be attended to on time, you have to come early, adding that some people come as early as 6.00am so that they can get the number card on time.
“No matter the crowd, the health personnel will attend to us, though it may take time. This is a general hospital and not a private one where you have few people. Most of us prefer here because the charges are not high. Treatment is not costly. Though we now pay token for scan unlike in the past when it was free,” she explained.
An expectant mother, Mrs. Ngozi Chinedu, who is carrying her first pregnancy said though she prefers private hospitals, because they attend to people promptly, she was advised to register at the public hospital because of the availability of diverse medical experts with experience compared to what the private hospitals have.
Mrs. Chinedu who said she started attending antenatal when she was three months pregnant added that the nurses and doctors are doing their best.
“They check us and also advise us on what to do,”she said.
 At the Wuse District Hospital, the story is not different. Medical personnel attend to several pregnant women on the antenatal day which holds every Friday.
A pregnant woman, Mrs. Asabe Usman, said though the huge population is discouraging, they are however placated by good hands attending to people. 
 She said: “There is no time one comes for antenatal that the place is not filled up but with patience it will get to your turn.”
Mrs. Usman said it is cheaper to register in a public hospital for antenatal than the private hospital especially with the prevailing economic situation.
 One of the senior nurses who attend to the pregnant women at the hospital and craves anonymity said the antenatal clinic comes up every Friday, and also depends on the particular Friday that each person registers.
 “Each person comes on their scheduled day if there is no problem. When a woman registers, we fix her on one of the Fridays. It may be once in a month and later twice depending on the month,” she said.
 She said registration for a newly pregnant woman costs N3,000 before she starts fully.
 Ante-natal clinic is every Wednesday at the Nyanya District Hospital, which is said to have the largest number of deliveries per month among hospitals under the control of the FCT Hospitals Management Board. The hospital also contends with a huge population of pregnant women on ante-natal clinic days.