Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Expectant Mothers on Physical Activity A Comparative Study

Pregnancy is often considered a crucial and complete metamorphic stage in a woman life. Undoubtedly as you continue your pregnancy, you will have numerous questions about various aspects of having a healthy and safe pregnancy. Being physically active during pregnancy contributes significantly towards the health and wellbeing of the mother as well as the child. The aim of the current study is understand the knowledge, attitude and practices of expectant mothers towards physical activity in pregnancy. A total of 100 expectant mothers in the third trimester, 50 of government hospital and 50 of private hospitals, were selected from different maternity hospitals across the city, Hyderabad, through random sampling. The data was collected through self administered questionnaires. Data compilation was done using Microsoft excel version 2010 and statistically analysed using chi square test. The results revealed that while majority of the expectant mothers from both the hospital settings agreed that physical activity is important during pregnancy, they reported decrease in physical activity following pregnancy which may be attributed to various reasons like the lack of advice from health care providers regarding physical activity majorly among the government hospital women and reported barriers like fatigue and pregnancy discomfort, lack of time and fear regarding the safety of physical activity during pregnancy. It was observed that greater number of expectant mothers of the government hospital performed adequate physical activity when compared to their counterparts. Thus, the study concludes that although there was no statistically significant difference in knowledge regarding the guidelines for physical activity in pregnancy yet the expectant mothers of government hospitals were more physically active than that of expectant mothers of the private hospital. Anam Fatima | Dr. P. Ashlesha "Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Expectant Mothers on Physical Activity - A Comparative Study" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-4 , June 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23745.pdf