Anaemia In Pregnancy

Anaemia in pregnancy is a common problem in most developing countries and a major cause of morbidity and mortality especially in malaria endemic areas. In pregnancy, anaemia has a significant impact on the health of the foetus as well as that of the mother. 20% of maternal deaths in Africa have been attributed to anaemia. Anemia during pregnancy is highly preventable and treatable. The researcher studied the management of anemia among pregnant women attending antenatal care in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design and a self-designed questionnaire was the research instrument used for data collection. The researcher determined the sample size of 220 respondents for the study using Taro Yamane sample size formula.

From the findings, the knowledge about anaemia and its causes, in this study is low (21.2%), majority of the respondents said they had never heard of anaemia. Most pregnant women in Elele community have been exposed to secondary education but unfortunately, were not well informed with the condition of anemia in pregnancy. The predisposing factors recognized to be responsible for anemia in pregnant women were parity (14.2%), adoption/miscarriage previously (28.1%), blood transfusion (23%), and being a sickle cell anaemia patient (28.3%). Increasing access to health information and quality services will greatly affect health seeking behavior and utilization of health services. The results indicated that the major challenge was finances with a response rate of 84.1%, followed by time constraint (62.3%), lack of support from family/friends (59.3%), and accessibility to ANC services (56.9%). The most valid strategy for manging anaemia was that regular medical checkup is necessary during pregnancy (70.4%)

The prevalence of anaemia amongst the participants was high. The parity, gestational age at booking, educational status and the birth interval are factors that were found to have affected the prevalence of anaemia in this study. Therefore educating women on early antenatal booking and compliance with the use of prescribed medications (Iron Supplements, Folate and Antimalarials) should also be emphasized to reduce the problem of anaemia and its effect on pregnancy outcome in Nigeria.