Description:
Introduction: Danger signs of pregnancy is a warning signs that women encounter during
pregnancy, child birth and postpartum. For that reason, knowledge of the danger signs of
pregnancy is important that pregnant women and their families are conscious of the danger signs
of obstetric complications to enable them to take timely action on complications that may arises.
Objective: The objective of the study was to assess level of knowledge of danger signs of
pregnancy and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care in public
health facilities of Boricha district, Sidama region, Southern Ethiopia, 2020.
Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted .The study was undertaken from
April 1-30, 2020. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select 396 study
subjects. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and it was entered in to EPI Data
version 4.1 software program and exported to SPSS version 22 software for analysis. All
variables which show association at bi-variable analysis entered into the multivariable logistic
regression models to test for the association and p-value less than 0.05 and 95 % CI for adjusted
odds ratios (AOR) was to declare the significance of the associations with the outcome variable.
Result: A total of 391 women participated in the study. Of the total sample, 146 (37.3 %) were
knowledgeable about pregnancy danger signs. The study finding indicated that educational status
of the respondent[AOR 3.4; 95%CI (1.16, 9.92) ] , ages between 25-34 years [AOR
3.70,(95%CI) (1.38, 9.86)] and ≥ 35 years [AOR (95%CI) 3.11(1.05, 7.73)] , women having 2-3
ANC visit [AOR 2. 09; 95%CI (1.01, 4.32) ] and >3 ANC visit [ (AOR 4.95; 95%CI (1.93,
12.64) ] , husbands who were elementary educated [AOR 2.7 (1.18-6.22) ] and secondary &
above [ ( AOR (4.8 ( 1.61-14.25) ] had statistically significant relationship between pregnant
mothers’ knowledge on pregnancy danger signs .
Conclusion: The level of knowledge about danger signs of pregnancy was relatively low. This
study showed that level of knowledge was affected by education status, the number of ANC visit
and age. Based on finding increasing level of educational status of women’s and ensuring
focused antenatal care by early detection of pregnant women were major recommendation.