Abstract:
Background: Every pregnant woman faces the risk of sudden unpredictable complications that could end in death or injury to herself or to her fetus. Globally, more than half a million women are still dying annually as a result of complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge of pregnancy danger signs and associated factors among pregnant women at Zewditu memorial hospital Addis Ababa.
Method: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2022 – May 2023 among pregnant women. The data was entered using EPI info and analysis was done using SPSS version 24. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were carried out to see the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable and to control confounding variables.
Result: From all of the 322 respondents, about 163(50.62) % pregnant women have had good knowledge on obstetrical danger signs who mentioned at least six obstetric danger signs, whereas 159 (49.37%) respondents mentioned less than six obstetric danger signs. and 106 (32.92%) cannot mention at least one obstetric danger sign. The most frequently mentioned danger signs are leakage of liquor (64%) and vaginal bleeding(63.7%) .The study also showed that there is association between occupation, family income, number of pregnancy and history of previous pregnancy complications.
Conclusion and recommendation: This study has shown that only half of the respondents had knowledge about danger signs which leaves the remaining half with inadequate knowledge. . The findings showed that knowledge of danger signs was substantially correlated with occupation, family income, number of pregnancy and previous pregnancy complication. It’s recommended that Health facilities and healthcare providers should focus on strongly advising and educating as a main part of the ANC routine.
Thesis available at Addis Continental Institute of Public Health Library