Women's Awareness of Danger Signs of Obstetrics Complications

Abstract

An exploratory descriptive study was conducted at two Maternal and Child Health Centers (MCH) selected randomly in Albeheira Governorate to assess women's awareness of danger signs of obstetric complications. The study subjects consisted of 200 pregnant women attending the previously mentioned setting for tetanus toxiod immunization during pregnancy was enrolled in the study. (100 from each) A structured interview schedule was developed by the researcher after reviewing of the relevant literature and used to collect the necessary data. It comprised the following parts: Part I: Socio-demographic data such as age, level of education, occupation and number of family members…etc Part II: Obstetric characteristics such as gravidity, parity, abortions, antenatal follow up and presence of any complications. etc. Part III: questions related to knowledge about signs of obstetric complications, complaining of any obstetric complication, what to do if the woman has any of these signs. The study revealed that slightly more than one quarter of the study subjects (26.5 %) were unaware of obstetric danger signs compared to almost the same proportion (26.0 %) that had good awareness about such signs, while 47.5 % of the study subjects exhibited fair awareness. Lack of awareness about obstetric danger signs was related younger age, low level of education, gravidity and parity, previous experiences with any obstetric complications and lack of antenatal care. This study reflects the need for strategic plane to increase the awareness to shape health seeking behavior of the public related to signs of obstetric complications. (Wafaa A. Rashad 1 and Rasha M. Essa. Women's Awareness of Danger Signs of Obstetrics Complications. Journal of American Science 2010;6(10):1299-1306). (ISSN: 1545-1003).