Associations of Spouse Involvement and Women Empowerment with Antenatal Care Utilization; A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Utilization of prenatal health services is associated with improved pregnancy outcomes, including reduced maternal and perinatal mortality. Objective: to assess antenatal care (ANC) utilization and to investigate its relation to spouse involvement and women empowerment. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 500 females attending an immunization clinic for the purpose of immunizing their babies who were delivered within the previous six months in 4 urban and rural primary care centers in Mansoura district from September 2017 to January 2018. Results: The mean age of the studied group was 27.5± 9.8. Most of the mothers were highly educated, not working, with enough to just enough income, unaccompanied with their husbands who had a positive attitude towards ANC. Approximately 68.6% of the mothers had ≥4 ANC visits. Better ANC utilization (≥4 visits) was significantly associated with living in urban areas, higher education, working status, enough income, an accompanying spouse, and a positive attitude of the spouse. Mothers had moderate empowerment (5.6±2.3 out of 9). Total empowerment score was significantly higher among mothers who had ≥4 compared with <4 ANC visits (5.9±2.1 versus 4.8±2.5). Conclusion: Spouse involvement and women empowerment have a positive impact on antenatal care utilization.