Preconception care in South Eastern Nigeria.

The objective was to determine the awareness and practice of preconception care in a developing country. This is a cross-sectional study of women receiving antenatal care at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and Enugu state university teaching hospital (ESUT) between October 2005 and March 2006. Sampling was systematic where every consenting second of two pregnant women receiving antenatal care at the hospital was mobilised for the study. Data analysis was by descriptive and inferential statistics using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 11 (SPSS Inc. 2001). A total of 1,500 questionnaires were distributed while 1,331 were completed and returned giving a response rate of 88.7%. The mean age was 30.0 + 5.0 years. Of these, 573 (43.1%) women had heard of preconception care. The respondent's awareness of preconception care and their ability to define the subject correctly increase significantly with their educational status and parity. However, there was a difference between knowledge and behaviour. The practice of preconception care was not affected significantly by the parity of the patients. The majority believed that preconception care might improve the health of mother and child. The practice of preconception care is almost non-existent in developing countries. It is important that all stake holders in maternal and child health be involved in vigorous, targeted and sustained female education to improve knowledge and utilisation of preconception care by women of reproductive age groups in developing countries. Health institutions in these underserved populations should develop, and maintain functional dedicated and multidisciplinary clinics for preconception care to decrease perinatal and maternal mortality. Preconception clinics are more important in developing countries such as Nigeria compared with the western world because they would help correct inadequate education and identify a high level of existing illness relevant to pregnancy - much higher than in the western world.