OBJECTIVE:

To determine the reasons for abandonment and absence of antenatal care in postpartum patients in a public hospital in Peru.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Observational, descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional study of a series of cases of postpartum patients (delivery or caesarean section) who attended the Hospital San Juan de Lurigancho (level II-2) between 1 August and 7 November 2022, with at least six antenatal visits. The descriptive analysis was processed in Excel version 2019, where we obtained: mean, minimum and maximum for quantitative variables, frequencies and percentages for qualitative variables.

RESULTS:

270 patients were studied, with a mean age of 27 years, standard deviation of 7.2. 93.3% had 1 to 5 antenatal care visits (dropouts) and 6.7% had no antenatal care; 57% started antenatal care in the second trimester and 19.6% in the first trimester. 27.03% had only completed primary school and 70.03% reported not knowing about the availability of antenatal care.

CONCLUSIONS:

The main personal reasons for not attending antenatal care were: fear of COVID-19 infection, physical health problems, not knowing about the availability of antenatal care and not planning the pregnancy. Institutional reasons: appointments when they could not attend, long waiting times, inadequate materials, inadequate admission, previous mistreatment by staff and difficulty in finding the clinic. Social reasons: inflexible working hours, living far from the facility, domestic violence and negative relationship with family.