ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Antenatal care acts as a component of public health encouragement as well as prevention program, thus an appropriate antenatal healthcare services serve as a means of better neonatal outcome and safe maternity. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has shown that low impact, moderate intensity and regular exercise are recommended for pregnant women irrespective of their fitness level, for approximately 30minutes most days of the week.

AIM: This aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of

antenatal exercises among pregnant women in University of Benin Teaching Hospital Benin city, Edo state.

METHODOLOGY: Convenience sampling technique was used for this study. A total of 191 pregnant mothers were recruited for this study. Knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal exercises questionnaire was adopted by the study (Sujindra et al ., 2015).Descriptive Statistical of frequency and percentage were used to  present the knowledge , attitude and practice.- Inferential statistics such as Chi Square was used to determine between KAP and sociodemographics with alpha level set at 0.05.

RESULT: The age range for this study group was 18-40years, The findings of this study revealed that pregnant women attending antenatal clinics possess an adequate knowledge of antenatal exercises, with 189 (99.9%) of the participants indicating adequate knowledge of the concept of antenatal exercise,  (91.6%) had positive attitude towards antenatal exercise while only 8.4% had negative attitude towards antenatal exercises, 53.4% reported not to have practiced exercise during pregnancy.There were also significant  relationship between marital status and knowledge of antenatal,marital status and attitude towards antenatal exercise,level of education and attitude towards antenatal exercise,age and knowledge of antenatal exercise,occupation and knowledge of antenatal exercise

CONCLUSION: The majority of the pregnant women in this study showed sufficient knowledge of antenatal exercises and positive attitudes toward exercise. Few women actually engaged in exercise while pregnant. Furthermore, educational level, age and marital status has been associated with knowledge, attitude and practice of antenatal exercises.

KEY WORDS: Antenatal exercise,pregnancy,knowledge,attitude,practice.