ABSTRACT
Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is the care given to pregnant women for safe pregnancy and healthy babies. It is the most effective health intervention for preventing maternal morbidity and mortality. Health knowledge is an important element which enables women to be aware of their health status and promotes service utilization which further improves the health of the beneficiaries. This study was conducted among mothers of rural area of Belagavi with an objective to determine the level of knowledge related to ANC and the factors associated with the same.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in February-April 2018 among mothers who had delivered within one year from date of study and who had registered and availed antenatal services in field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, BIMS, Belagavi. Sample size was calculated as 161. Mothers were selected using systematic sampling. Data was collected after obtaining an informed, written consent from the participants and was compiled, tabulated and analysed in MS Excel. The results are presented as percentage and proportions and chi square test has been applied.Results: 50% participants had fair knowledge regarding ANC. The level of knowledge was found to be statistically significant with employment status and BPL status.Conclusions: The study found adequate knowledge among majority of mothers.
ABSTRACT
Background: India has the highest number of infant deaths, contributing about 23% to the global burden of infant deaths. Sustainable development goal states that, by 2030, preventable deaths of new-borns and children under 5 years of age should be ended, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births. Aims of the study: (1) to understand the socio-demographic profile of the study cases, (2) to correlate the causes of infant deaths with age, parity and other obstetrics parameters.Methods: The present study was undertaken for the period of one year from January to December 2016. The study included 120 deceased infants from department of Pediatrics, Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS) Hospital, Belagavi. Information regarding socio-demographic profile, antenatal, intranatal and infant details were collected using a structured questionnaire.Results: 61.6% of study cases were male and three-fourth of them resided in rural area. 56.2% of the deceased infants were LBW, followed by VLBW (34.9%) and ELBW (8.9%). The common causes of death among the deceased infants were prematurity (45%) followed by, birth asphyxia (34.2%), sepsis (12.5%), pneumonia (3.3%) and congenital anomalies and other (2.5%).Conclusions: Age of the infants, gestational age, place of delivery, delivery assisted and LBW were associated with infant deaths. There is a need for proper implementation of programmes related to mother and child health care.