జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ప్రెగ్నెన్సీ అండ్ చైల్డ్ హెల్త్

నైరూప్య

Awareness of Obstetric Danger Signs and its Associated Factors among Pregnant Women in Public Health Institutions, Mekelle City, Tigray, Ethiopia 2014

Tirsit Abiyot, Mekuria Kassa, Gerezgiher Buruh and Kalayou Kidanu

Background: Pregnancy is a normal process that results in a series of both physiological and psychological changes in expectant mothers. However, normal pregnancy may be accompanied by some problems and complications which are potentially life threatening to the mother and / or the fetus. Awareness of obstetric danger sign in pregnant women is the essential first step in accepting appropriate and timely health care service. However, there is high maternal death in developing country due to low awareness of obstetric danger sign during pregnancy and delivery. Yet its associated factors are not well known in Ethiopia, where maternal morbidity and mortality is high.

Objective: This study was intended to assess awareness of obstetric danger signs and its associated factors among pregnant women who visit ante-natal care in mekelle city 2014.

Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2013 to June 2014 and data was collected from January to February 2014. A total of 359 pregnant women, selected using systematic random sampling method, respondents were interviewed from two hospitals and two Health centers by 8 nurses. Structured pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered into SPSS version 20 and cleaned before analysis. Bivariate and multi variable logistic regression analysis were carried out to see the association of each independent variables with the dependent variable. At 95% CI, variables having p value < 0.05 in the multi-variable logistic regression model was considered as associated factors.

Result: Out of the total study participants 171(47.6%) were in the age group of 25-30, 140(39%) were in the age group of 18-24 and the rest were in the age group 37 and above. Regarding their religion majority 300(83.6%) of the study participants were orthodox, 56(15.6%) were Muslim and the remaining 3(0.8%) were catholic and protestant. Of all participants about 82.5% knew at least two danger sign . The odds of women who have 4-6 pregnancies were 2.976 times (AOR; 2.976 95% CI,( 1.203-7.365) more likely to have awareness of obstetric danger signs compared to those women who have 1-3 pregnancies.

Conclusion and recommendation: The associated factors of awareness towards obstetric danger sign were age, number of pregnancies, Partner educational status and occupation. Male based health education on obstetric danger signs should be introduced in all health institutions and the community should be mobilized through mass media by Mekelle city health office. This study indicated that the awareness of pregnant women about obstetric danger signs (during pregnancy, delivery and postnatal period) was high for one danger sign but low two danger and above and affected by Antenatal follow up. Therefore, the identified deficiencies in awareness should be addressed through maternal and child health services by designing and this study indicated that the awareness of pregnant women about obstetric danger.