Awareness and attitudes of pregnant mothers towards use of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) Services

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the Attitude and Awareness of Pregnant Women Toward Use of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) Services. The sample consisted of 250 pregnant women who were 12 years old and above. A purposive sampling procedure was employed to select health centers both government and private owned facilities in Kinondoni District which provide VCT for pregnant women. Selected health facilities were Magomeni Health Center, Sinza Palestina Health Center, Kawe Mission Health Center, Tandale Health Center and Marie Stopes Health Center. From each health center 50 respondents were interviewed. The finding of the study showed that respondents were knowledgeable of the existing counseling and testing services. About 98.4 percent of respondents stated affirmatively that they are aware of the services, but less than a half reported to utilize the services. In both private and Government health centers it was found that 77.6 percent of the sample of 250 respondents had been tested for HIV. These volunteers had individual reasons for doing so. Some respondents reported to have attended VCT because of a strange illness, others had lost their siblings, and some said just to know their HIV status, and others said they were pregnant. The factors that make people not to volunteer were as follows: “I don’t have time to have a test”, ” This is my First time to visit VCT center”,” I am afraid of the results”, and “ There is no cure.” On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that VCT programme implementers need to improve communication campaigns to address awareness and knowledge of VCT for pregnant women and especially for couples by providing increasing knowledge the benefits of VCT.