Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Jun 3, 2025
Date Accepted: Sep 10, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Quality of the First Prenatal Consultation in Malemba Nkulu, DRC: Challenges and Opportunities in a Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Assessment of the quality of the first antenatal consultation in the Malemba Nkulu Health Zone, Haut-Lomami, DRC
Objective:
This study aims to assess the quality of first prenatal consultations (CPN1) in the Malemba Nkulu Health Zone, by identifying the challenges encountered and proposing areas for improvement to strengthen the quality of prenatal care.
Methods:
cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in eight health facilities, involving 248 pregnant women and 14 healthcare providers. The quality of ANC1 was assessed using an observation grid based on national and international standards.
Results:
conducted by traditional birth attendants with no advanced medical training. 52.4% of pregnant women had their first ANC in the third trimester, limiting access to preventive interventions.
Conclusions:
Strengthening healthcare provider training, improving access to diagnostic tests, and raising awareness among pregnant women about early antenatal follow-up are crucial for better maternal outcomes.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.