Knowledge of mothers regarding prematurity and related problems in Abakaliki, South-East Nigeria

Prematurity poses a high financial and psychological burden to the families and healthcare providers. This study was aimed at determining the knowledge of mothers on prematurity and its associated complications in Abakaliki, South-East Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional study among postnatal women who came for immunization of their children, within 6 weeks of delivery, at the Institute of Child Health, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (AEFUTHA), from January 2 to June 30, 2022. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect information from the eligible participants. The data was analyzed with the Statistical Product for Service Solutions (IBM SPSS, Armonk, New York, USA) version 23.0 for windows. Categorical variables were analyzed with chi-square test. P-value < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. A total of 491 eligible mothers participated in the study. The proportion of the participants who had correct knowledge of preterm delivery and had experienced preterm delivery were 40.3% and 17.3% respectively. Majority of the participants knew that smoking(88.2%), alcohol intake(86.8%), poor nutrition(83.1%), maternal infections(65.8%), premature rupture of membranes(80.8%), absent/poor antenatal care(74.5%), maternal trauma(80.7%) and stress(79.4%) were the risk factors for preterm delivery. About half of the participants knew that the use of herbal medication in pregnancy(51.1%) was a risk factor for preterm delivery. However, majority of the participants did not know that hypertensive disease in pregnancy (53.6%), multiple pregnancy (63.5%) and previous preterm delivery(58.5%) were also risk factors for preterm delivery. Approximately half(50.1%) of the participants knew that preterm delivery could cause birth asphyxia. Majority (75.6%) of the participants also knew that preterm delivery could cause neonatal infections .However, majority of the participants did not know that preterm delivery could cause fluid and electrolyte imbalance(70.9%) and abnormal glucose metabolism(63.5%). Being less than 35 years old, having at least secondary education, urban residence and previous history of preterm birth had significant influence on the knowledge of preterm delivery (P-value = < 0.05). There was a poor (40.3%) knowledge of preterm delivery and its associated perinatal complications among the mothers. This underscores the need to sensitize the pregnant women on the risk factors to, and complications of preterm delivery.