TITLE:
Provision of Preconception Care by Midwives, Nurses and Doctors at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Ndola District, Zambia
AUTHORS:
Gloria Sakanyi, Febian Chapima, Concepta Namukolo Kwaleyela
KEYWORDS:
Preconception Care, Provision, Knowledge, Practice, Attitude
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.14 No.3,
March
18,
2024
ABSTRACT: Background: The goal of preconception care is to improve the outcome of a mother’s pregnancy and childbirth. Nevertheless, in most
developing nations; Zambia included, there are still issues with implementation
of preconception care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish the
provision of preconception care by midwives, nurses and doctors at Ndola
Teaching Hospital in Zambia. Methods: A concurrent embedded mixed methodology utilising a descriptive
explorative study design, where 107 respondents were randomly selected using
the lottery technique for quantitative part and two focused group discussions
for qualitative part of the study was used. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative
data and a focus group discussion guide was used for the focus group discussions. Statistical Package of Social Sciences version
26 with significance set at
0.05 and at 95% confidence level and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. Results: 75% of the respondents in
this study were not providing preconception care and only 25% of respondents
were providing preconception care; however, this was provided randomly because
there were no guidelines to follow. Among the respondents, 81.3%
had medium knowledge, 70.1% had good practices and 92.5% had positive attitudes towards
preconception care. Further analysis showed that the association between
preconception care and knowledge, practices and attitudes was not statistically
significant (p = values 0.336; 0.344; 1.000 respectively). Multivariate
logistic regression revealed that participants with high
knowledge were five times more likely to provide preconception care (OR = 5.00,
CI = 0.42 - 59.7, P = 0.203). Generally,
all the participants acknowledged that preconception care was an important
package that could prevent maternal and child morbidities and mortalities. Conclusions: The study revealed that most of the respondents were not providing
preconception care. Provision of preconception was done by a small fraction of
the respondents and it was done in an unorderly manner due to lack of set
standards and guidelines. Despite medium levels of knowledge and generally good
practices and positive attitudes towards preconception care, its random
provision indicates a need for established standards to enhance maternal and
child health outcomes.