Level of awareness of primigravida about pregnancy and antenatal care at the time of booking in a South West Nigerian tertiary hospital

Abstract

It is pertinent for the pregnant woman to understand the concept of what she is embarking on. Antenatal care is a specialized form of health care given to pregnant women in order to have safe delivery for both mother and child. Pregnant women need to be informed of the meaning and importance of Antenatal Care and the need for them to avail themselves of the opportunity in order to benefit from expert monitoring of the progress of pregnancy, prompt identification of anything that may jeopardize the outcome of the pregnancy and access to skilled personnel at delivery. This study assessed the level of awareness of pregnant women about pregnancy and antenatal care at the time of booking in their first pregnancy. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Questionnaires were used to obtain information on the level of awareness of primigravid women about pregnancy. A simple structured questionnaire was used to get the consented pregnant women’s awareness or otherwise about basic pregnancy issues and antenatal care. The questionnaire was administered by research assistants already trained with the questionnaire. Data was fed into and analyzed with the Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Proportions were calculated using percentages and cross tabulation of variables to find out relationship and statistical significance by chi-square. Majority, 110 (34.7%), of the respondents were booked at 8 to 16 weeks gestation. Majority of respondents were aware of doing basic investigations like PCV (98.1%), HIV (94.3%) and Hepatitis B (85.8%) in pregnancy. Majority of the respondents 259 (78.9%) know that high blood pressure of pregnant mother can affect the baby. One hundred and seventy-eight respondents (56.2%) said they do not know that previous caesarean section has effect on subsequent deliveries. Majority of the respondents 278 (87.7%) knew that they will start immunization for their babies at birth. In conclusion, there is fair awareness of basic pregnancy issues and antenatal care among pregnant women. Notable area of inadequate knowledge is the impact of caesarean section on subsequent pregnancies. It is recommended that all efforts must be made to ensure that discussions about pregnancy and antenatal care with women starts at younger age as early as in the secondary school days to prepare them for the eventuality of pregnancy, its care and childbirth. The health education aspect of antenatal care should be well organized to fill all information gaps for the pregnant women.

Keywords: Primigravida, pregnancy, knowledge, antenatal care.

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