Pap smear among postnatal women at a tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Cervical cancer is still a burden in our subregion. In the absence of effective screening programs, opportunistic screening remains the mainstay of early diagnosis. The postnatal clinic check-up may be the only window of opportunity to screen women who meet the inclusion criteria. In this study 3% of postnatal women had abnormal Pap smear. Colposcopy evaluation however, did not show abnormal findings. The patients are still on follow up. This study also shows that awareness on cervical cancer is low. Although 13% of the women had heard of cervical cancer, only 5% had a fair idea what it was. This is instructive considering that 51% of the women studied had tertiary education. An unforeseen challenge in the course of the study was the reluctance of women to voluntarily accept to be screened even when it was free.