Perception on prenatal care management

Objective: The purpose of this study was carried out to investigate and evaluate the factors affecting perceptions of prenatal care management services. A review in this category found very few studies mostly concentrated in the American, Canada and Europe countries. Methods: This is a quantitative study where a convenient sample of 93 pregnant women either attending a selected private or a public health care hospital was used. Results: The results revealed 80.6% of women surveyed perceived to be satisfied by the management of both health care sectors. In the public sector, 75.6% were satisfied while 85.4% in the private sector. The majority of satisfied subjects within the public and private sectors are from the secondary (14 yrs) level of education, 47% and 35% respectively. The majority dissatisfied were from the low-income group that attends the public health care facility as oppose to the private sector. Conclusion: The private sector patients were more satisfied with conditions than the pubic sector patients. In the same context, there are some recent studies conducted in Trinidad on the health care systems but unfortunately no emphasis and demarcation on statistics are given to the private and public sectors. Further research on the experience of prenatal care services in the private and public facilities with the ‘More Developing Economical Country’ (MEDC) needs to be conducted to get a comprehensive view of this experience. Key Words: Prenatal care management; prenatal care; pregnant women; obstetrics; perception;