RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To study the preconceptional preparedness of women attending two antenatal clinics. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study done in August and September 2001. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics De Soysa Maternity Hospital and Castle Street Hospital for Women for their booking visit. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Pregnant women were randomly selected. Before collecting data the purpose of the study was explained and those who consented were recruited for the study. Data were collected on the basis of an interviewer administered questionnaire. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. RESULTS: 225 pregnant women were recruited. 55% of them were between the ages of 18 and 30 years. 96% had achieved an educational level of above year five. 55% were in their first pregnancy and 2.75 were grand-multipara. 186 (82.7%) were housewives. 81% had a planned pregnancy. Only 21% had received pre-pregnancy counselling, 52% of them from a specialist obstetrician, and 21% and 19% from a general practitioner and public health midwife. Only 15 (6.6%) had taken preconceptional folic acid supplementation, and all of them had a level of education of GCE (A/L) or above. 11 of those who took preconceptional folic acid were primipara. 159 (70.6%) had received rubella vaccination. Of those who did not take the vaccine, 44% knew about it but did not know its importance, and 38% did not know about its availability. 18% did not take it because of various myths that they believed in. Preconceptional health knowledge regarding pregnancy was assessed by asking 10 questions and expressing it as a score out of 10. This score showed a positive correlation to the level of education of the woman. A majority received information from the print (81.7%) and electronic (72.4%) media. 50% received information from a public health midwife, and 36% from doctors. CONCLUSIONS: Preconceptional preparedness among our women is poor. However, rubella vaccination is relatively successful compared to other aspects of preconceptional preparedness.