Abstract:
Preconception care (PCC) encompasses healthcare services and interventions offered to individuals or couples prior to pregnancy, aimed at improving their health and supporting positive outcomes for both the mother and child. Increasing PCC use, is one possible way to address the high mother and infant mortality. Our study aimed at assessing the current state of PCC utilization at primary healthcare facilities in Kiambu County. A cross-sectional mixed-methods design was used in our study. Pregnant women receiving ANC services at the targeted primary healthcare facilities in Kiambu County and the healthcare workers working in these facilities comprised the study population for our study. The Mane algorithm was used to determine a sample size of 365 respondents. Ques tionnaires were used to gather quantitative data while key informant interviews and focused group discussions were used to collect qualitative data. SPSS version 29.0 was used to analyze the quantitative data and descriptive statistics like frequencies were used. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Tables were used to display the results. Our study revealed PCC utilization rate of 40.4% with majorly short term utilization of between 1-3 month (40.7%). Commonly utilized PCC services include nutritional counselling (62.1%), vaccination (61.4%), lifestyle counselling and exercise & fitness advice at 60.7% respectively. The findings of our study showed utilization of PCC is low in Kiambu County and the PCC services offered were in line with the international recommendations. Thus, the County government, healthcare workers and community health promoters should focus on raising awareness about preconception care including tailored PCC care packages
for the community to increase uptake of PCC service leading to better maternal and neonatal health outcomes.
