Attitude of Expectant Mothers on the Use of Ultrasound in Pregnancy in a Tertiary Institution in South East of Nigeria

BACKGROUND With the world-wide availability of ultrasound services even in the developing countries, routine ultrasonography in pregnancy remains a controversial issue. However, in this era of reproductive health right and evidence-based medicine, the views of women need to be ascertained. AIMS The aim is to assess the attitude of antenatal women toward sonography in pregnancy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A descriptive self-administered questionnaire-based cross-sectional study using 208 women that booked for antenatal care from January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009 at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. RESULTS The number of respondents who had ultrasonography in their previous pregnancies was 58.7% (122/208). Although many reasons were given for personal ultrasound requests, 19.7% (24/122) of the women who had obstetric scan in their previous pregnancies thought it was a normal booking test done for every pregnant woman. When compared with other booking investigations, 60.1% (125/208), mainly civil servants .expressed the views that ultrasound in pregnancy is costly, while 24.4% (59/208) felt it is cheap, 9.1% (19/208) said it is very costly, while the remaining 2.4% (5/208) thought it is not affordable. Apart from visualizing the images of their babies, 17.8% (37/208) of the cases wanted to know the sexes of their babies while 15.4% (32/208) was for determination of fetal position. Out of 110, 52.9% (110/208) were of the opinion that women can decide when to request for sonography. CONCLUSION The attitude of Nigerian women to sonography is good. Majority of them request ultrasound for fetal observation and gender determination.