Factors affecting antenatal care attendance in Soweto, Johannesburg: The three-delay model

In plain language

Women in Soweto, Johannesburg, face numerous obstacles that delay the early initiation of antenatal care. Individual and social factors contributing to these delays include an initial lack of awareness regarding pregnancy, cultural beliefs encouraging secrecy around pregnancy, and anxiety surrounding HIV testing. In addition, financial and structural constraints play a major role, specifically high transport costs, long waiting times, and clinic demarcation rules. Health facility conditions further discourage timely visits due to shortages of essential medicines, broken toilets, and verbal abuse from nursing staff. To resolve these issues, the findings highlight the need for community-based health education, the formal institutionalisation of psychosocial support services for HIV, and widespread improvements in the overall quality of care delivered across public antenatal facilities.

Key takeaways

Late antenatal care attendance in Soweto is driven by pregnancy unawareness, cultural secrecy, and fear of HIV testing.
Financial and logistical barriers such as transport costs, clinic demarcation, and long clinic queues delay access to care.
Poor healthcare facility conditions, including medicine shortages, broken infrastructure, and verbal mistreatment by nurses, deter pregnant women from seeking services.
Interventions require community-level health education, structured psychosocial support for HIV, and improved public service quality.

Why it matters

Early antenatal care is critical for the health and survival of mothers and babies. Identifying the personal, financial, and healthcare-related factors that deter women from visiting clinics allows public health authorities to target interventions effectively. Addressing these barriers directly can help reduce maternal and child health risks in vulnerable urban communities.

Commercialisation angle

The abstract does not indicate an application pathway for commercialisation, as the findings focus on public health service delivery and community interventions rather than a commercial product or service.

AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.

Abstract

From this study, we learn that challenges such as unawareness of pregnancy, cultural notions of keeping pregnancy a secret, fear of HIV testing, long waiting lines, high cost of transportation fees, clinic demarcation, shortage of essential medicines, broken toilets and verbal abuse from nurses have delayed women from initiating antenatal care early in Soweto, Johannesburg.Contribution: Challenges of women with antenatal care attendance in South Africa must be addressed by implementing community-based health education interventions, institutionalising HIV psycho-social support services and improving quality of antenatal care services in public health facilities.

Research topics

Global Maternal and Child Health
Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations
HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses

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