Publications

This study aimed to determine the impact of COVID-19 on antenatal care services atKampala International University Hospital from 2019 to 2020.This was a retrospectivestudy. We reviewed the records of mothers who attended the antenatal care clinic atKampala International University Teaching Hospital during the months of March, April andMay of 2019 and 2020.We also had Medical staff directly provide prenatal care at the clinicduring prenatal check-ups. A questionnaire to report on challenges. The obtained data wereanalyzed using SPSS software version 22. A total of data from 2,379 customers wasanalyzed. Antenatal care participation decreased by 7.1% in 2020.Services significantlyaffected were fetal heart monitoring and intermittent malaria prophylaxis. The proportionof mothers over 22 weeks who did not perform fetal heart monitoring was higher in 2020(2.0% vs.0.0%, p<0.001). The proportion of mothers over 16 weeks who did not receive IPTtreatment was also higher in the 2020 period (28.7% vs 14.2%, p<0.001).The challengesreported by all healthcare workers, and thus referred to as the main challenges duringCOVID 2020, were lack of transportation, overwork and exhaustion, and fear of infectionCOVID-19. Participation in antenatal care decreased during COVID-19 in 2020. The servicesmost affected were auscultation and intermittent malaria prophylaxis. The main challengesare lack of transportation, overwork and exhaustion, as well as fear of contracting Covid-19. Preparations for epidemics and natural disasters must be done so that when epidemicsoccur, they will be affected as in this case