AWARENESS REGARDING OBSTETRIC DANGER SIGNS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN AT A TEACHING HOSPITAL, CHITWAN, NEPAL

Jayalaxmi Shakya*, Sabita Sharma, Preeti Shakya and Jaya Prasad Singh

ABSTRACT

Obstetric danger signs are unexpected that can lead to maternal and newborn complications. These danger signs are mainly classified into three categories like; severe vaginal bleeding, swollen hands/face, and blurred vision during pregnancy; prolonged labor, convulsions and retained placenta during labour and postpartum hemorrhage and fever during postnatal period. The study aimed to find out the awareness regarding obstetric danger signs among pregnant women at a Teaching Hospital, Chitwan. A cross sectional study was carried out at Gynaecology / Obstetric Outpatient Department, Chitwan Medical college Teaching Hospital (Gynae/Obs OPD, CMCTH), Chitwan. Total 150 respondents were selected by using non-probability consecutive sampling techniques. Data were collected by using structured interview schedule, and analyzed in descriptive and inferential statistics, presented in tables and interpreted accordingly. More than half of the respondents (55.3%) had below 26 years, and 74.0% resided in urban and belonged to Hinduism 80.0%. Likewise 52.7% were Brahmin / Chhetri, 39.3% had higher level education and 54.0% were home maker. Lower than half of the respondents (43.3%) had poor awareness, 34.0% fair awareness and 22.0% good awareness regarding obstetric danger signs. Lower than one fourth of the pregnant women have good awareness regarding obstetric danger signs during pregnancy, child birth and postpartum period. Thus awareness program is required to be provided by health workers regarding obstetric danger signs during antenatal checkup to pregnant women for better maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Keywords: Awareness, Obstetric Danger Signs, Pregnant Women, Chitwan.