Nelsensius Klau Fauk
Objective: The study aimed to identify the influencing determinants of the utilisation of antenatal care services among pregnant women in Indonesia.
Methods: A systematic search of English and Indonesian literature was conducted using several databases including Pubmed, Popline, Scopus, Proquest, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar, and Google, covering the period between 1994 and 2016. The search used different key terms either in combination and/or singly. Hand searches were conducted to identify grey literature, and references of the selected articles were scrutinised to obtain additional relevant literature. Due to the limited number of articles, a narrative review was conducted to identify the emerging themes from the literatures.
Findings: Results indicated that cultural determinants including traditional beliefs influenced pregnant women’s decision to seek for antenatal care. Socioeconomic factors such as level of income and antenatal care cost, lack of knowledge of healthy pregnancy, and women’s autonomy were also identified as the barriers to accessing antenatal care services among Indonesian pregnant women. Physical distance to and unavailability of health facilities and services were environmental factors that hampered pregnant women from attending antenatal care. Preference for Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) services was the behavioural factor hindering pregnant women from accessing antenatal care.
Conclusion: The findings of this review indicate the needs for the improvement of knowledge of Indonesian pregnant women on the importance of antenatal care, and the availability of and accessibility to antenatal care facilities and services, and local transport to facilitate pregnant women to seek antenatal care services.
