How and how long do family physicians follow up pregnant women?

Abstract

Objective: In our country prenatal care services (PCS) are given by family physicians (FP) and family health assistants (FHA) in primary care. PCS are one of the most important ways to prevent deaths due to pregnancy and birth. The aim of this study is to investigate pre-partum follow up status and effecting factors of women in primary care services who had given birth in our hospital.

Methods: 182 women who had given birth in Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of Izmir Katip Celebi University Ataturk Education and Research Hospital between the dates of 01.06.2013 - 01.09.2013 are included in the study. The data collection forms were consisted of 59 questions concerning socio-demographic, bio-demographic features of the participants and comprehension of antenatal care including examination, measurments, informing and consulting services. Besides descriptive statistics including percentage (number), average ± standard deviation (min. - max. values), median; chi square test for comparisons between the groups were used. P value <0, 05 was taken as significant.

Results: The mean age of participants (n=182) was 28.5±5.9 (17-43 years). The average pregnancy number of the participants was detected to be 2.5±1.3 (1-7). The 95.0% (n=133) of the participants stated that they received antenatal care in their former pregnancies.When the application of the participants to the family physicians was evaluated, a significant relation between the family type, profession, monthly income and first place of health control was obtained. There was no relation between the education levels and the first applied health care organization. (p values in orderly: 0.028; 0.003; 0.001; 0.193).

Conclusion: It was detected that necessary tests and measurements were made sufficiently to the mothers participated in our study during prenatal care by family physicians. However, it was also found that informing about complaints concerning pregnancy and general information about pregnancy was insufficient. PCS have great importance on proving early detection and treatment of complications that may occur during and after pregnancy and prevention of stillbirth and infant mortality. In order to provide adequate and qualified PCSs providing necessary in-service education to FPs and FHAs, and raising awareness on the subject is required.