The Behavioural Pattern of Pregnant Mothers towards Antenatal Clinics and Its Implications on their Nutritional Knowledge in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined the behavioural pattern of pregnant mothers towards antenatal clinics and its implications on their nutritional knowledge. The study adopted descriptive cross sectional study with a target population of pregnant women in the some selected villages in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. The sample size of the study comprised 200 pregnant women attending their normal antenatal cares clinics in the sixty-six (66) primary health care centres in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. To ensure the validity of the instrument, the questionnaire was being giving to the women during their antenatal visit in the hospitals and lectures in the department of Food Sciences and Technology for scrutiny and suggestions, correction and amendment. The data obtained from the sampled respondents through the use of structured questionnaire were analyzed using frequency, percentage, cumulative percentage, mean and standard deviation. The result of the findings indicated that majority of the respondents strongly agreed that the most observable negative implications of pregnant mothers’ behavioural pattern towards antenatal cares clinic on their nutritional knowledge is that it increases the potential health risks during and after pregnancy while lesser number of the respondents strongly believed that the negative implications could be a reduction in the intake of nutrient capable of preventing anemia in the mother and lacks knowledge on the relevance of balanced diets during pregnancy. Therefore, it was recommended that the relationship existing between pregnant mothers and personnel of antenatal clinics should be made more cordial through increased awareness especially to pregnant mothers on the roles of antenatal cares clinics in ensuring the development of fetus and ensuring good maternal health. This will reduce the nonchalant attitude existed by pregnant mothers in seeking available antenatal care.