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.