ABSTRACT
Background of the Study: Myths regarding oral health are extensively prevalent and have considerable impact on pregnant women's dental behaviour and practices. Thus, this study sought to understand misconceptions (pregnancy and early childhood oral care) and their determinants amongst pregnant women. Methods: A questionnaire designed to assess the participants' demographics, parity, oral health behaviour and misconceptions was administered to 305 pregnant women attending antenatal care. Oral health (DMFT, bleeding on probing and periodontal pocket) was examined. Independent t test, analysis of variance and linear regression were used for statistical computations. Results: Early childhood myths (5.54 ± 1.87) were more prevalent amongst the study population than pregnancy-related myths (3.28 ± 1.89). Bivariate analysis exhibited that myths were significantly more prevalent in mothers who were ≤ 30 years of age (8.79 ± 2.565), primi parous (8.90 ± 2.141), illiterate (9.07 ± 2.764) and who had never visited a dentist (8.46 ± 2.016). Both pregnancy and early childhood myth scores were positively correlated to DMFT (p = 0.00; p = 0.031). Educational status and age were significant negative predictors of myths with p values of 0.00 and 0.34, respectively. Parity emerged as the only significant positive predictor (p = 0.002). Conclusion: The high prevalence of myths in the present study advocates that standardized, culturally appropriate and simple educational messages need to be developed and delivered to break these misconceptions. Minimum one visit to a dental surgeon during second trimester should be advocated and encouraged for all pregnant women.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Maternal body mass index (BMI) is a vital predictor of the nutritional status of any pregnant woman. Several developing countries like India are facing the double burden of both obesity and malnutrition due the extreme socioeconomic distribution of our population. Thus, this study was undertaken to study the effect of pre-pregnancy maternal BMI on the obstetric outcomes. Materials and methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted during the time period of 1 year (December 2018-December 2019), wherein we analysed 3940 women who delivered in Goa Medical College. Depending on the maternal BMI calculated at the first antenatal visit, all the study participants were divided into five BMI groups and their obstetric outcomes were studied. Results: Majority of the study participants were in the normal BMI category (49.8%); however, a large number of women were overweight (37.3%), 3.2% were obese, 0.1% were morbidly obese, and 9.6%were underweight. Antenatal complications like anaemia and IUGR were more common in underweight women, whereas pre-eclampsia, GDM, macrosomia, antepartum haemorrhage and preterm labour were more common in obese women. Increased rate of Caesarean sections and postpartum complications like PPH, wound sepsis and puerperal sepsis were observed in overweight and obese women. Conclusion: Thus, adverse obstetric outcomes were observed in extremes of maternal BMI. Hence, there is a need to provide pre-conception counselling to all women in the reproductive age group so that they can achieve normal BMI prior to conception and thus reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rates in our country.
