Knowledge and Attitudes of Pregnant Mothers towards Maternal Dietary Practices During Pregnancy at the Etoug-Ebe Baptist Hospital Yaounde

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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE. Poor dietary practices have been observed among the pregnant mothers receiving antenatal care services (ANC) at the Etoug-Ebe Baptist Hospital Yauonde (EBHY), despite routine nutrition education provided to these mothers and their apparent knowledge and approval of the importance of nutrition in pregnancy. We explored the nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of pregnant mothers receiving ANC at the EBHY in order to identify the correlation between their nutrition knowledge and dietary practices. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A cross sectional descriptive survey was done on 100 randomly selected pregnant mothers. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS computer package (Version 19.) Data comparison was done by Chi Square (Χ2) test with P 0.05).Cultures and taboos exempted mothers from eating meat from wild animals, chicken, sea fish, sweet things, food partly eaten by animals, sugar cane, mud fish and ‘porrished’ cocoyam. CONCLUSION. Pregnant mothers in Yaounde have satisfactory knowledge on adequate nutrition in pregnancy, but with significant gaps and difficulty in translating knowledge into practice. Maternal dietary habits are greatly influenced by hormonal changes in pregnancy, socio- economic status, food taboos and cultural beliefs; thus making it difficult to practice the nutrition advice they receive. Adequate multiple dietary supplementation should accompany nutrition advice as an integral part of ANC. Health policies that address cultural taboos should be instituted in favour of pregnancy nutrition.

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