Knowledge and attitudes on pregnancy related physical well being and safe pregnancy among pregnant women in Hambantota district and their associated factors

Abstract

A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted for a sample of 422 pregnant women who were admitted for delivery to the two main hospitals of the district. Those who were admitted for delivery to the two main hospitals of the district. Those who have completed 34 th weeks of pregnancy were included in the study and a structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used as the study instrument. Data collection was done for a period of 3 weeks and test retest was done to assure the validity of the data. The results revealed that the majority of mothers had adequate knowledge on factors related to antenatal period ( 77.3 percent ) and postnatal period ( 61.6 percent) while , the percentages of mothers who had adequate knowledge on factors related to pre- Pregnancy period and labor period were 25.4 percent and 13.8 percent respectively. Only 2danger signs during antenatal period were known by majority of the study population namely, bleeding through vagina ( 59.5 percent) and reduced fetal movements ( 57.1 percent) where swelling of calves with pain, recurrent faintishness, severe headache, severe tiredness, high fever and fits were known by less than one fifth. Therefore antenatal and pre pregnancy health education programs should be strengthened considering all periods of pregnancy and risk conditions. A special attention should be paid to improve the knowledge of mothers with risk conditions.