Preventive Measures And Knowledge Of Anemia In Pregnancy Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic

Maternal nutritional status, before and during pregnancy, is crucial to reproductive health, and also for optimizing pregnancy outcomes. Availability of nutrients to the developing fetus depends on maternal nutrient stores, dietary and obligatory intake requirements. It is on the above premise that this study investigates preventive measures and knowledge of anemia in pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan, Oyo state.

The study utilized the use of a non-experimental cross-sectional type of descriptive survey and a convenient sampling technique was used to select the participants and, data were obtained from 384 consented participants using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS Windows Version 20.0 set at p ≤ 0.05 significant level.

The result of the study unveiled that, out of the 384 respondents, 284 (74.05%) of the respondents said it is natural state in pregnancy; 321 (83.6%) responded that it is detected through pallor screening; 307 (79.9%) responded that avoidance of some culturally forbidden foods like snail during pregnancy can help against anaemia; 309 (80.5%) responded that the dietary iron intake during pregnancy can help against anemia. The result of the findings based on the hypothesis revealed that there was a significant association between the educational level of respondents and their knowledge about anemia in pregnancy. There was a significant association between clinic attendance and pregnant women’s knowledge of the prevention of anemia in pregnancy also, there was a significant association between the economic status of pregnant women and their perception on anemia in pregnancy.

It was concluded that a healthy and varied diet is important at all times in life, but particularly so during pregnancy. It was recommended that maternal diet must provide sufficient energy and nutrients to meet the mother’s usual requirements, as well as the needs of the growing fetus, and enable the mother to lay down stores of nutrients required for fetal development as well as for lactation as a means of preventing anemia.