Maternal Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Pregnant Women Attending Sos Hospital Mogadishu, Somalia
Abstract
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most women do not consume or lack,
thereof, adequate micronutrients during their reproductive years and pregnancy. Health facilities
(a potential source of nutrition knowledge) partly influence deterioration of preganant mothers and
women nutritional conditions owing their sparse distribution and probably understaffed, especially
in Somalia. Majority of unsuccessful birth outcomes are partly as a result of poor nutritional status
of preganant mothers and women owing to low nutrition knowledge, poor attitude, and inadequate
nutrition practices. Therefore, this study purposed to determine the association of maternal
nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices with the birth outcomes among pregnant mothers
and women in Haliwaa, Somalia. As a result, a cross-sectional research was done to evaluate the
dietary awareness, attitudes, and practices on 384 expectant mothers and women. A semistructured
questionnaire was used a tool for collecting the quantitative and qualitative data through
a face-to-face interview. Additionally, this further was supplemented with a focus group
discussion on pregnant women's dietary knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The quantitative and
qualitative data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0 and ENA.
From the results, married pregnant mothers were the majority at 77.9%, followed by widows
(12.2%), while divorce women were 9.9%. The unemployed respondents (56.3%) were
significantly more than self-employed at 26.3% and employed (salaried) at 17.4%. About a quarter
of the respondents (25.3%) had attained secondary education, while 4.7% had an elementary
education and 23.5% had informal education. The mean parity was 4.67±2.38 pregnancies per
woman with a range of 10. The mean number of children per household was 4.59± 2.330, with a
range of 10 children. The mean number of ANC visits was 2.44±0.497, with a minimum of 2 visits
and a maximum of 3. There was a remarkable difference in the illness quoted by the participants,
with anemia being the highest at 45.3%, followed by diabetes at 12.5% and hypertension at 5.5%.
Those who did not report any illness were 36.7%. About 33.3% of the respondents said no medical
condition was experienced on the day of the interview. About 88.3% of the women were
knowledgeable about sources of vitamins, followed by those who identified sources of
carbohydrates (69.3%), and about half of the women (54.7%) were aware of sources of proteins.
Significantly few women identified sources of energy (22.3%). Only 14.6% of the women knew
that foods could provide more than one kind of nutrient. The mean number of additional meals
taken by pregnant women in the study population (82.6%) was 3.30 ±0.459 with a minimum of 3
and a maximum of 4. About 62.5% consumed snacks in between meals. All the pregnant women
(100.0%) knew that a balanced diet is essential during pregnancy, and slightly less than a third
(28.0%) did not know about foods that are rich sources of Iron.
Results from focus group discussions indicated that the respondents were knowledgeable about
the clinical definition of high blood pressure. Additionally, the group agrees that high blood
pressure can lead to premature delivery due to the placental deprivation of blood flow. Attendance
to the antenatal clinic was essential for pregnancy and maintaining a healthy diet because they
determined the fetal outcome. The level of education among women is still deficient. Expecting
women's attendance at prenatal clinics was low. The study population had a high prevalence of
iron deficiency anaemia. Women are well aware of the importance of essential nutrients but are
not informed on the exact sources of these nutrients. Pregnant women perceive medication intake
as detrimental to their pregnancies since it is likely to affect fetal health. It is, therefore, essential
to institutionalize nutritional education. The government should do more sensitization on the
importance of early and regular attendance at antenatal clinics, do more on supplementation
programmer, especially for the iron-deficient pregnant mothers, and come up with appropriate
policies to guide these supplementation programmers.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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