2005, Number 1
Pregnant women’s knowledge about nutritional requirements during pregnancy
Barbosa-Ruíz RE, Domínguez-Quintela MS, Gómez-Gómez GJ, Monjo-Zarate CE, Salinas-López C, Torres-Blas RM
Full text
Language: Spanish
References: 14
Page: 3-8
PDF size: 54.09 Kb.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Since several decades ago, nutrition and nourishment problems of Latino America population have been a topic to investigate, especially, in the health of the bond mother & child. A mother well nourished in quality and quantity, is able to provide enough energy to protect the fetus; in order to achieve that, both prenatal care and a control of nutritional education are essential.Objective: Explore the knowledge of low risk pregnant women who attend a prenatal visit to learn about the nutritional requirements during pregnancy.
Methodology: Fifty low risk pregnant women eligible for convenience were surveyed when attended a prenatal visit with a mother & child nurse specialist. After the visit and under informed consent, it was applied a designed, exprofesso questionnaire to collect data about social and demographic characteristics and knowledge of nutritional requirements during the pregnancy period. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics.
Results: The most of surveyed women (93%) is within reproductive age between 18 and 31 years old; 75% of them have an elementary or middle school educational background, and a half of them, has a monthly income of two thousand pesos. Related to the nutritional requirements that should be included within the nourishment, such as iron and fiber, more than 90% of people referred having that knowledge; in contrast, 50% said knowing about the necessity to consume calcium, proteins, and enough amounts of fluids. In general, only 63% of pregnant women have sufficient knowledge about such nutritional requirements.
Discussion: Even though a little more of a half of pregnant women have enough knowledge, the rest of women do not have it. Afterwards, it should be analyzed the relation with age, educational level, income, and number of pregnancies among other factors.
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