Does Maternal Factors Have A Bearing On The Health Of Their Offsprings.

ABSTRACT

Abstracts Background: The development of the child is dependent on the mother and if the health of the mother suffers, the child's growth and development are in turn affected. The mother is also the first teacher of the child, and that is why the mother and child are treated as one unit. A mother is the principal provider of the primary care that her child needs during the first six years of his/her life. The type of care she provides depends to a large extent on her knowledge and understanding of some aspects of basic nutrition and health care. This begins at conception and continues until infancy, teenage and adulthood. Therefore, mothers are key players in the growth and development of children. Methodology: The study was carried out in the villages under RHTC, field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, Dehradun. A sample of 500 mothers with children in the age group of 0-36 months living in the registered population of RHTC were included, where mother's demographic profile, parity, diet during pregnancy were recorded. Results: Maternal factors as maternal age, education, parity diet & supplementary nutrition during pregnancy, emerged as significant predictors of under nutrition. Conclusion: The findings confirms the association of maternal factors with malnutrition of their children. This may involve public health enlightenment campaign discouraging teenage pregnancy and high parity of mothers which predisposes to poor nutritional status, poor diet during pregnancy which further increase the risk of poor outcomes both for the mother and the child. There is also need to increase female education as this will make them receptive to health interventions that will improve their nutritional status along with their children.