Residence Location and Ante-Natal Healthcare Utilisation in Selected Public and Private Orthodox Hospitals in Ijebu, South-Western Nigeria

Maternal and infant deaths are presumed to be higher in Ijebu, South-west Nigeria. Ijebu Division of Ogun State has a total number of six local Government areas.–Ijebu-Ode, Odogbolu, Ijebu-North, Ijebu North East, Ijebu East and Ogun Waterside - From these, two Local Government Areas were selected purposively - Ijebu North and Ijebu Ode - representing rural and urban respectively. 50 percent of the total numbers of these hospitals were selected through a simple random sampling to accommodate major hospitals and maternities. The study population was pregnant women between 15 to 49 years. The total population was 28,350 with Ijebu-Ode and Ijebu-Igbo having 9,985(35.2%) and 18,365(64.8%) respectively. Yaro Yamane's technique was used to determine the sample size. The formula produced 394.4 and this was approximated to 400 in a case of attrition. Ijebu-Ode carries 32.2%(141) and Ijebu-Igbo 64.8%(259) of the total sample. There was significant relationship between healthcare location and utilization as those who live far away from a point of maternity service could not come regularly for their ANC. Qualitative data revealed that many of the pregnant women are not accessing the hospital due to long commuting. The study concludes that pregnant women are influenced by their closeness to the service centre.