The Signs of alert and Labor: knowledge among pregnant women

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: ididentify the scores on the pregnant women’s knowledge on the signs of alert and labor and correlate the scores with the maternal age, number of children and the guidance they received during pregnancy. Methods: this is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach on pregnant women's previous knowledge of the signs of alert and labor performed with 100 pregnant women on their 30th week of gestation at the Hospital de Clínicas da UFTM (Clinical Hospital). The data collection was carried out from April to June 2016, using a semi-structured instrument tested as a pilot study. Results: only 21% of the pregnant women reported taking part in the pregnant women's group; 61% of them referred to not receiving any information on the signs of alert and labor. A statistically significant association was verified between the number of correct answers and the guidance they received during prenatal consultations. However, there was no correlation between the correct scores on maternal age and the number of children. Conclusions: the pregnant women who did not receive any kind of guidance, they had lower scores on the correct answers, which shows the importance of guiding them about Health Education during their prenatal consultations.

Keywords

• Prenatal care
• Obstetric childbirth
• Labor
• Health education