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Assessment Of Nutritional Knowledge And Practice On The Health Of Pregnant
[A CASE STUDY OF WOMEN IN MAYO-DASSA JALINGO, TARABA STATE]
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
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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).
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
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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---
