Knowledge of Antenatal Exercise among Pregnant Women in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the level of knowledge of antenatal exercise among pregnant women in Nsukka LGA, Enugu state. Four specific objectives with four corresponding research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 2,008 pregnant women registered at the 16 health facilities that offer antenatal care services in Nsukka LGA at the time of the study. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to draw 204 pregnant women for the study. Researchers’ designed questionnaire termed Knowledge of Antenatal Exercise Questionnaire (KAEQ) was used to collect data. Frequency and percentage were used to answer research questions while chi-square statistic was used to test the null hypothesis at .05 level of significance. The results of the study indicated that pregnant women possessed low knowledge of types of antenatal exercise (38.9%), very high knowledge of benefits of antenatal exercise (80.6%) and average knowledge of contra-indications to antenatal exercise. All pregnant women irrespective of parity had average knowledge of antenatal exercise. There was no significant difference in the knowledge of antenatal exercise based on parity (ᵡ2=4.985, p= .283 > .05). The researchers recommended that health and physical educators and other health care workers should educate women in general and pregnant women in particular on the need for antenatal exercise.