ABSTRACT

 This study was carried out to assess the perception of pregnant women towards the nutrition education approaches and messages delivered during antenatal clinics in health centres and hospitals in rural (Isikwuato) and urban (Ohafia) locations in Abia State. A cross sectional study, population comprised ofpregnant women attending antenatal services/care in the various antenatal clinics in health centres and hospitals in the study areas, minimum sample size of297 respondents, a multi-stage sampling technique were adopted for this study while a wellstructured and validated questionnaire was Used for the data collection and'analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression and Pearson correlation and significance wasjudged atp<0.05 using the Statistical Package for Socials Sciences SPSS version 20. The result of the study revealed that among the respondents, 40.7% were within the age range ofless than 18 years as well as 36 and above respectively, majority (82.2%) ofthe respondents were married whereas very few (8.4%) were single, some (44.1%) of the women had secondary education whereas very few (2.4° o) had no formal education, less than half(43.1 %) had tertiary education whereas 8.1% ofthe women had primary school. Most respondents (92.9%) ofthe pregnant women had children between the age range of 1 - 4, while 57.9% ofthe women in the study were in their first trimester, 37% and 16.8% were in their second and third trimesters respectively. Few of the respondents (25%) employed only lectures on their dietary intake education of pregnant women, while 12.5% stated the use of pamphlets/posters alone. Majority of the respondents (71.7%) received messages on dietary intake of pregnant women, 13.1% were given messages on breastfeeding practices, 7.4% on complementary feeding practices, 3.7% on family planning while 1.3% received on preventing COVID 19; Physical activity; and all of the messages respectively, 64.6% reported that lectures were the approach used by the health professionals in delivering their messages. Also 13.8%, 9.8%, 4.0%, 2.4%, 2.0%, 2.0% ofthe pregnant women opined that pamphlets/posters, practical and demonstrations, SMS messages and email, computer presentation, role plays/songs and writing on the wall/board respectively were used by the health professionals in delivering their messages. Most respondents (48.8%) had the perception that it w'as better to present nutrition messages using computer because it is clearer and more interesting. Few (22.25%) respondents had average score of 40-69% while a,larger portion (77.8%) of the population had poor knowledge of the diets for pregnant women; few (14.8%) had good knowdedge score (70 and above), 21.2% had average (40.0 to 69.9) while more than half of the women had poor grade (less than 39.9) on the knowledge of how to properly breast feeding those infants, a high prevalence (73.4%) of poor knowledge score on complementary' feeding practice of the pregnant women was witnessed, (8.1%) had good knowledge score while 18.5% had average knowledge of complementary feeding practices. The findings showed that there were poor dietary knowledge amongst the women as its relates td dietary practices for pregnant women and nursing mothers (breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices). Nutritional status of every women preconception and during conception is a great determinant.for her pregnancy outcomfe. Poof breastfeeding practices can also lead td infant morbidity and mortality among mother with poor breastfeeding practices toward their infants.