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Assessment Of Nutritional Knowledge And Practice On The Health Of Pregnant Women In Mayo-dassa Jalingo, Taraba State
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nutritional
knowledge has been proven to play a very vital role in adopting optimal
nutrition practices in the health of every expectant mother.As a matter
of fact, health and nutritional status of the population of a nation is
an important indicator of development of the country (Taleb, Kaibi,
& Deghboudj, 2011). A nutrition survey carried out in India observed
that the nutritional status of pregnant and lactating and infants is
not satisfactory. According to L.M. (2010), this is probably due to lack
of basic knowledge regarding proper nutrition and wrong customs
prevalent in the community besides non availability and low intake of
food. In Nigeria, there are some adverse socio-cultural and economical
factors that produced negative consequences and reduce women’s access to
effective ante-natal services needed to reduce maternal morbidity and
mortality. The most important of these are the low socioeconomic status
of women that deny them access to appreciable decision-making with
regard to their reproductive functions, high level of female illiteracy
which is a leading cause of poor health seeking behaviour for maternity
services among Nigerian women and high rate of poverty that
predominantly affects women leading to inadequate dietary intakes, high
rate of pregnancy complications and women’s reduced access to evidence
based maternity services (Obionu, 2006). Maternal nutrition before and
during pregnancy is an important determinant of birth weight. High rate
of Low Birth Weight (LBW) in developing countries has been attributed to
poor maternal nutrition (Obionu, 2006). Pregnancy is a time of
tremendous physiological change that demands healthy dietary lifestyle
choices. Growing foetus draws a lot of energy and nutrients from the
mother to enhance physical and psychological development (Oni,
&Tukur, 2012). In developing countries like Nigeria, it is essential
to states that low birth weight stems primarily from the mother’s poor
health and nutrition, and inadequate nutrition during pregnancy accounts
for a large proportion of growth retardation (Igbokwe, 2012).
Malnutrition has been recognized as one of the underlying factor for
maternal death during the process of procreation. The causes of
malnutrition are multidimensional and multi-factorial with poverty, food
inadequacy and maternal illiteracy being the main culprit of the menace
in developing countries. The health of the mother and her nutritional
status can influence the health and survival of the child because of the
biological links that exist between her and her child during pregnancy
and lactation (Obionu, 2006).
There is an important factor under
nutrition that is responsible for high infant mortality rate, maternal
mortality rate and also for low birth weight of infants. Appropriate
nutritional practice on the other hand plays a pivotal role in
determining optimal health and development of infants (Fasola, Abosede,
& Fasola, 2018). There is abundant epidemiological evidence that
poor prenatal nutrition predisposes the offspring to diseases in its
later life.Inadequate nutrition is the predominant factor leading to
malnutrition, which can be expressed as either under nutrition or over
nutrition. Corsi, Kyu, & Subramanian, (2011) pointed out that under
nutrition occurs when there is not only inadequate energy but also a
lack or imbalance of specific food components and nutrients. In addition
to sufficient energy, adequate supplies of macronutrients and
micronutrients are required to promote optimum growth. The proportions
and amounts of these nutrients may change according to the various stage
of growth.There have been considerable changes in human lifestyle all
over the world in the recent decades. Especially in recent years, the
lifestyle has rapidly been changed. These changes appeared in diet,
types of food, cooking time, etc. Nowadays processed foods are rapidly
replacing organic food. Another change is the rapid increase in the
number of restaurants and in people's tendency to eat fast food. Proper
nutrition is one of the most important aspects of lifestyle (Daly,
Azefor, & Nasah, 1993). Epidemiological evidence shows that there is
an increased incidence of diseases such as (Cardiovascular diseases,
obesity, high blood pressure and cancer), which can be attributed to
changes in lifestyle as well as changes in nutritional habits.
Nutritional education is also one of the important aspects that play a
big role in nutritional knowledge by raising awareness and ultimately
the health of the society (Awosika, 2001). In order to remain healthy
and physically active and enjoy a healthier life style it is necessary
to obtain good nutritional knowledge and implement it. The knowledge,
attitude and practice must be considers in expectant mothers in order to
promote society health. Awosika, (2001) opines that from time
immemorial it has been recognized that the pregnant and lactating women
form one of the most nutritionally vulnerable segments of the
population; the ill effects of maternal under nutrition affect not only
the mother but also her offspring.In order to bring about change in the
level of nutritional knowledge and practices prevailing people regarding
nutrition, an attempt was made here to provide an awareness regarding
nutritional knowledge practices on the health of pregnant women in
Mayo-Dassa Jalingo, Taraba State.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study was carried out to assess the nutritional knowledge practices on the health of pregnant women in Mayo-Dassa Jalingo, Taraba State. Specifically, the study assessed the knowledge of pregnant mothers with regard to maternal nutrition, determined the extent nutritional practices are carried out by pregnant women in Mayo-Dassa Jalingo, Taraba State, examined the effects of malnutrition on the health of pregnant women in Mayo-Dassa Jalingo, Taraba State and, examined the nutritional challe ... Continue reading---
