Pregnant women’s knowledge toward the effects of drugs on mother health’s and foetus during pregnancy in Fatima Al Zahra hospital, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract

Objective: To assess pregnant women’s awareness on medication use and its effects on their health and the health of their unborn child. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study on pregnant women who frequently visited the outpatient clinic at the Fatima Al-Zahra Hospital was conducted using a non-probability sampling technique. A two-part questionnaire, the first of which inquired about socio-demographic information and the second inquired about mothers’ awareness of the effects of medications on their health and the health of the foetus while they were pregnant, was used to collect data through direct interviews. The content validity of the instrument was established with the assistance of 20 specialists. Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient was used to assess the instrument scales’ reliability. A Likert item was used to assess respondents’ understanding of a certain topic or statement. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, the strength of the independent correlations between different components and the desired results was evaluated. Results: The study’s findings show that participants’ awareness of how medications affect a pregnant woman’s health and the foetus had a bad overall mean score. On average, they were 27.4 8.34 years old. A 75 (75%) of the participants in the study were over the age of 21, had a secondary education, and were working in some capacity. A 50 (50%) of women had had three to five pregnancies, and 48 (48%) were in the third trimester. 11 (11%) of them utilized the medication illicitly. Conclusion: Maternal awareness of medication use is statistically strongly associated with a number of factors influencing outcomes. In fact, pregnant adults over the age of 21 had little knowledge about it, little education, and used the drug without a prescription. The results of the study highlight the need for increased communication about medication use with expectant mothers in order to enhance their understanding and reduce self-medication. Keywords: Knowledge, Pregnancy, Mothers, Fetus, Medication DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.IQ-22