Anemia In Pregnancy: Risk Factors And Adverse Maternal And Perinatal Outcomes In Tertiary Care Hospital

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Menstruation is an important milestone event in a girl's life with the beginning of reproductive life. Still, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions, particularly in rural areas leading to ignorance of adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene practices and its scientific facts. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:1. To find out status of menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent girls. 2.To find out association between different socio-demographic factors and menstrual hygiene. MATERIALANDMETHOD:Across sectional study was conducted between March 2017 to September 2017 among 400 adolescent girls (10-19 years) of rural area of Katihar. Data were collected from 273 girls, who have achieved menarche, on a pre tested and pre designed questionnaire after taking parental consent and was analysed using MS Excel and Epi info 7. RESULT:Menarche was found to be achieved by the girls in age group 10-16 years, mostly in the age group 12-13 years (69.59%). Among 273 respondents, 82(30.04%) girls were aware about menstruation prior to menarche and the source of information was mostly sister (54.95%) followed by friends (19.05%) and mothers (15.75%). In my study, only 31 (11.36%) girls used sanitary pads during menstruation. Majority of them (95.24%) were using soap and water to clean external genitalia while more than half of girls (69.60%) did not possess a covered toilet. Menstrual hygiene was taken care mostly by those girls, whose mothers were literate (77.42%). Around 260 (95.23%) of the participants followed one or the other cultural restrictions and majority (76.15%) were avoiding religious functions. CONCLUSION:In our study, hygiene during menstruation is not satisfactory hence there is a need to educate the adolescent girls about healthy and hygienic practices during menstruation to prevent the reproductive tract infections.