Antenatal care service utilization and social correlates of beneficiaries: an experience from a teaching hospital of a metropolitan city.

Research Question: What is the status of antenatal care among postnatal mothers in a tertiary care hospital? Settings: Postnatal ward Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of a teaching hospital of Kolkata. Study design: Hospital based descriptive study. Methodology: Systemic random sampling was done for interviewing of 600 mothers. Socio demographic information as well as antenatal care services received were recorded and analyzed. Results: 17.5% of the mothers got married when they were less than 18 years of age. 24.5% of the mothers became pregnant for the first time when they were less than 20 years of age. 12% of the mothers visited antenatal clinic less than 3 times. 7% of the mothers had not received TT dose adequately. Social class and literacy status of mother and low birth weight of babies significantly associated with number of antenatal visits.