Knowledge, attitude, and practice of Iraqi pregnant women about maternal risk factors

Maternal risk factors can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes. These include extreme maternal age, short inter-pregnancy intervals, lack or inadequate prenatal care, smoking, and obesity. Good knowledge, positive attitude, and safe practice of women about these risk factors are important in improving pregnancy outcomes. To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant mothers attending primary health centres, a cross-sectional study was conducted with 200 randomly selected pregnant women attending the Al-Qudus Family Medicine Primary Health Centre for antenatal care during the period June 2022 to February 2023. Direct interviews of the participants was carried out to obtain data using a structured questionnaire, and the data were tabulated and analyzed using SPSS software The mean age was 22.5 years, 78% of whom knew pregnancy beyond 35 years increases complication; 77% agreed that low maternal educational level has bad effect on pregnancy; 63% were aware of the bad effects of short interpregnancy intervals; while almost all women agreed that smoking has bad effect on pregnancy. About 82% had attitude of planning for pregnancy and frequent antenatal care visits; more than half had regular doctor visits with folic acid supplementation; while three quarters of the women took information from their families and relatives and half from doctors. We conclude that pregnant women in Al-Qudus Family Medicine Health centre, Iraq, have moderately to good knowledge of maternal risk factors.