Maternal knowledge, attitude and practice of safety belt use during pregnancy at Srinagarind Hospital.

ABSTRACT

From January 2002 to July 2002, 260 pregnant women of more than 20 weeks gestation at the antenatal care unit of Srinagarind Hospital, who fulfilled the criteria and had signed consent forms, and had answered the structured questionnaires. This cross sectional study showed that 230 women (88.5%) had an acceptable level of knowledge. Only 85 pregnant women (32.7%) had received information about safety belt use during pregnancy and mostly from books or magazines. There were 97, 154, and 9 pregnant women (37.3%, 59.2%, and 3.5%) who had a good, fair and poor attitude about safety belt use during pregnancy. Prevalence of safety belt use during pregnancy was 93.5 per cent and 17 pregnant women (6.5%) never used it during pregnancy. The most frequent reason for not wearing safety belt was discomfort. Two hundred and twenty pregnant women (90.5%) identified the correct position of safety belt use.