Margaret KerakaJelagat, Kirui, Nancy2022-09-152022-09-152021http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/24228A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of a Master of Public Health (Reproductive Health Option) Degree in the School of Public Health and Applied Human Sciences of Kenyatta University.Male participation in utilization of antenatal care services is critical in the uptake of maternal health care services and improvement of pregnancy outcomes. Provision of Ante Natal Care is essential for pregnant women as one of the pillars of safe motherhood. Despite high antenatal care attendance of 96%, the proportion of Skilled Birth Attendance was still low at 62% which is far below the 90% target by 2015. In developed countries the maternal deaths stood at 12 per 100 000 live births compared to 362 per 100,000 in Kenya. This study therefore sought to explore male participation in utilization of antenatal care services among their spouses in selected manufacturing industries in Babadogo, Nairobi City County Kenya. The study specifically focused on male awareness on antenatal care components, socio-cultural factors, health facility factors and employer related factors influencing male participation in utilization of antenatal care services. This study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive study design to collect quantitative data. The study respondents were sampled using systematic sampling with a predetermined interval of 2. A total of 266 respondents were recruited for interview with the aid of the human resource registers in selected manufacturing industries. The researcher sought all required approvals from relevant authorities and obtain informed consent from research participants prior to the conduct of the study. Data collected after Logistical and Ethical approval, was cleaned, coded and entered into Microsoft excel then exported into SPSS for analysis. Descriptive data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22.0 with the aid of Microsoft Excel program to generate frequency tables, graphs and pie-charts. Inferential statistics were calculated using Chi-Square tests done at 95% confidence interval and a margin of error of 0.05 to establish the association between study variables. The results of this study revealed that 34.0% of male respondents participated in antenatal care services in Nairobi City County despite 56.0% accompanying their wives to antenatal care. Psychosocial support to partners was the main motivation to participating in antenatal care. Most of socio-cultural factors such as antenatal care utilization is a women affair (p=0.041), embarrassed to accompany wife or partner (p=0.036) and it is the mother-in-law‟s responsibility to accompany women to ANC were significantly associated male partner participation in utilization of antenatal care services. 57.5% of respondents were moderately aware on antenatal care services. The level of awareness (p=0.001) was significantly associated with male partner participation in utilization of antenatal care services. Most of the health system factors such as distance to the nearest health facility (p=0.024), cost of accessing antenatal care (p=0.001), attitude of health providers (p=0.001) and friendly waiting bay were significantly associated with male partner utilization of antenatal care services. Employer factors such as amount of workload (p=0.001), terms of employment (p=0.017) and provision of payments during paternity leaves were significantly associated with male partner participation in utilization of antenatal care services. The study concludes that the rate of male partner participation in utilization of antenatal care services in selected manufacturing industries in Nairobi City County was low. The study further concludes that the respondents were moderately aware on the antenatal care services in Nairobi City County. These results would be useful to policy makers and other stakeholders to scale up early and proper antenatal care, encourage women to give birth under the care of a skilled birth attendant, provide resources to pay for the services and to help identify and seek heath care in cases of post-partum complicationsenMale Participation .UtilizationAntenatainl CareServicesSpousesManufacturing IndustriesNairobi CountyKenyaThesis