ABSTRACT
Awareness towards the symptoms of obstetric complications will lead to timely access to appropriate emergency obstetric care. The aim of the study was to assess and compare the awareness towards obstetric danger symptoms among never-pregnant and ever-pregnant women and to identify predictors of their awareness as a measure for the need to promote a preconceptional educational program in Egypt. This study was conducted in selected villages of Alfayoum and Benisuef governorates as a comparative study between 173 newly married never-pregnant women and 827 ever-pregnant women who were randomly targeted by a structured interview during a period of 8 months. The questionnaire included personal data, social data, and data related to awareness of obstetric danger symptoms, complications, and action taken on having any of these symptoms. The scoring system was designed for women's awareness, with one degree allocated for a correct answer. The study revealed that the percent of women who gained a score of knowledge of at least 50% was higher among ever-pregnant women than among never-pregnant women [43.9 and 19.1%, respectively]. Although bleeding is the highest reported cause for obstetric complications and is one of the reported causes of maternal deaths in the studied villages, only 26.6 and 20.2% of the never pregnant and 43.9 and 34.3% of the ever pregnant groups, respectively, knew that bleeding is a danger symptom during delivery and the postnatal period. Meanwhile, better awareness about obstetric danger symptoms and exposure to health educational messages was significantly higher among ever-pregnant women [OR = 3.08 and 2.28, respectively] [P < 0.001]. This study reflects the need for intensifying antenatal health educational messages given to pregnant women and the need for the implementation of preconceptional health education programs
ABSTRACT
Adequate maternal nutrition and proper antenatal and natal care can prevent unfavorable outcome of pregnancy. The present study aims to assess the quality of antenatal care, to study the prevalence of some maternal nutritional health problems and to study their effect on the outcome of pregnancy among ever-married women in the childbearing period [15-49 years] in some squatter areas of Cairo Governorate. The study examined 1164 ever-married women in the childbearing period. The sample size was calculated according to each indicator required to be measured and according to the prevalence of the studied problems. Six unplanned poor areas of Cairo were chosen randomly. A questionnaire sheet was designed to collect data from ever married women in the childbearing period in the household. It contained information about pregnancy care and pregnancy outcome for the last five years. Weight and height were measured for the entire studied sample and detection of hemoglobin level was done for a subsample of 303 women. The results revealed that the percentage of women who received antenatal care [ANC] in their last pregnancy was 55.6% and the quality of ANC was mostly poor [62.9%] in all squatter areas. Around half of children in squatter areas were born at home [48.2%] and doctors assisted more than half [56.0%] of all deliveries whereas pregnancy or delivery complications were detected in 27.9%. The overall percentage of the unfavorable outcome of pregnancy [abortion, stillbirth and ectopic pregnancy] was 22.5%. The percentage of women who had body mass index [BMI] below 18.5 was 3.4% indicating chronic energy deficiency. There was a high prevalence of severe anemia among non-pregnant [10.5%] and pregnant women [10.3%] and all the studied squatter areas showed high prevalence of moderate anemia among pregnant [76.5%] and non-pregnant [61.5%] women. The study concludes that there are high prevalence of moderate and severe anemia and high percentage of obesity [35.2%], the quality of ANC is mostly poor [62.9%] in all squatter areas and that the significant risk factors affecting unfavorable outcome of pregnancy are: poor quality of ANC, low maternal age and height [