KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF ANTENATAL EXERCISES AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING CLINIC AT PRIMARY HEALTH CENTER, OLUKU, EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

It has been discovered that encouraging suitable prenatal healthcare exercises improves neonatal outcomes and is essential for the safety of both the mother and child as long as the frequency, length, and intensity of the exercises are customized to meet the needs of indivdual woman. Despite its benefit, there is paucity of study on the knowledge, attitude and practice of physical exercise among pregnant women in the study setting. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal exercise amonga convenient sample of 160 pregnant Nigerian women attending antenatal clinic at Oluku Primary Health Center, Edo State. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for data analysis. Results revealed that 140(87.5%) of the respondents had adequate knowledge, 138(86.3%) had positive attitude, and 114(71.3%) had good practice of antenatal exercises. Further, there was a significant relationship between the knowldege and attitude of the respondents to antenatal exercises (X2=3.644, P=0.046) and also between the attitude and the practice of antenatal exercise (X2=10.292, P=0.001). In conclusion, this study revealed a good knowledge had translated into a positive attitude and ultimately a good practice of antenatal exercises among the respondents. It is recommended that health care providers should put their significant effort to further strengthen the knowledge, attitude and practice 7 of pregnant mother’s by providing better counselling and health education on antenatal exercise. Future study can focus on identification of factors related with knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal exercises. Keywords: Antenatal exercise knowledge, attitudes, practice, pregnant women.