Pregnant Women and Postnatal Mothers Lack Knowledge of COVID-19 and its Preventive Measures

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. During any health emergency, the pregnant women and postnatal mothers are more vulnerable for hazards. Hence, it is important to provide them adequate knowledge and good practice guidelines as issued by the World Health Organization. This study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude and practice against COVID-19 infection among Pregnant and post natal mothers in South Indian population. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the pregnant women who were in their third trimester and in postnatal mothers delivered within past 3 months. Semi structured questionnaire was used to assess 134 subjects. Out of 134 participants 40(29.9%) had adequate, 43(32.1%) had moderate and 51(38.1%) had inadequate knowledge. The level of practice and attitude towards COVID-19 and its prevention was good (94.8% and 93.3% respectively). There was a significant correlation between knowledge & practices(P=0.023) and practices & attitudes (P=0.000) among the study population. The antenatal mothers had significantly more knowledge than their postnatal counterparts (P=0.044). Age had significant association with knowledge, attitude and level of practice while parity was associated with practice levels alone. It is also evident that some practices of hand hygiene and proper breastfeeding hygiene are lacking among antenatal women and postnatal mothers. By virtue of the findings, it is evident that pregnant women and postnatal mothers lack adequate knowledge about COVID-19 pandemic and its preventive measures as issued by the World Health Organization. Since the knowledge & practices and the practices & attitudes towards COVID-19 are correlated, it is essential that meticulous steps are initiated to provide proper knowledge to the antenatal women and postnatal mothers in order to protect them from COVID-19 infection. We also found that some practices of hand hygiene and proper breastfeeding hygiene are lacking among our women. Steps must be taken to educate and encourage antenatal women and post natal mothers with respect to practices of hand hygiene and proper breastfeeding hygiene during this this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.