Abstract

<p>This study investigated the impact of husbands’ involvement in the ante-natal health care of their pregnant wives attending clinic in tertiary health institutions in Rivers State. This study adopted the descriptive survey design with an estimated population of 1,500 husbands of pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in tertiary health institutions. A sample size of 209 was selected using the purposive sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, and data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation and z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that, the extent to which husbands were involved in the antenatal healthcare of their pregnant wives was high. The ways husbands were involved included: accompanying wife to the clinic, providing financial support for her antenatal care, been acquainted with the antenatal schedule, showing interest in discussing antenatal healthcare services and making beneficial contributions when discussing antenatal health care with wife. The result also showed that husbands’ involvement had a high impact on the antenatal health care of their pregnant wives. The impacts included the following: it gives encouragement to the wives to use the available services more adequately, women utilize the antenatal care services better, wives keeping to their antenatal schedule, better understanding of the healthcare needs of pregnant wives, and promotion of mutual responsibility to the unborn baby. The study recommended that, health care workers should encourage fathers to be involved in maternity care by showing a preferential treatment to them</p>