Safe motherhood practices - Knowledge and behaviour among pregnant women in Belagavi, Karnataka. A descriptive study

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy and childbirth are essential for existence of the entire human race but maternal death is a twofold misfortune affecting both the mother and child. “Safe Motherhood Initiative” enlisted four pillars of safe motherhood but even after the launch of such and other initiatives maternal, infant and under 5 mortalities remained unacceptable. Assessing the level of awareness about safe motherhood practices among pregnant women thus becomes necessary to plan interventions to further empower them to avail these services. Objective: To assess the level of knowledge and behaviour about the safe motherhood practices and factors influencing these practices in pregnant women. Study group: Pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at a tertiary care hospital in Belagavi, Karnataka. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among 374 pregnant women for 4 months. Sociodemographic data and details of knowledge and behaviour about safe motherhood practices were collected using a predesigned pretested questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS software. Results: Participants’ mean age was 23.9 years. 84% of pregnant women had average knowledge while 68.4% had poor behaviour regarding Safe Motherhood Practices. Statistically significant associations were observed between knowledge and education level, employment status and socio-economic class, between behaviour and age at the time of marriage of the women and also between knowledge and behaviour (p-value<0.05). Conclusions: Among pregnant women knowledge about Safe Motherhood Practices was average and behaviour was poor. There is a necessity to increase the knowledge which will in turn bring about a good behaviour and empower women to use the safe motherhood services.

Keywords

• Behaviour
• Knowledge
• Pregnant
• Safe motherhood practices