Illnesses and Illness Behaviour of Pregnant Women Accessing Antenatal Services in Government Health Facilities in Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State

📄 Project Abstract

Illness can have adverse effects on pregnant women as it does on other groups of people. However, a study by United States Agency for International Development, USAID (2007) suggested that illnesses can affect the course of pregnancy and the health of the foetus. According to World Health Orgnaization, WHO (2001), every year world wide, nearly 500,000 pregnant women die as a result of complications from illnesses and 99 per cent of these deaths occur in developing countries such as Nigeria. In Nigeria, illnesses contribute to high rate of complications which cause the death of a pregnant woman everyday, and the causes of these deaths are preventable. WHO (2006) shows multiple illnesses which are directly related to pregnancy at overwhelming proporation of 94.4 per cent. Hospital records, according to Federal Ministry of Health, FMOH (2001) have shown that for many years illnesses are the major cause of maternal mortality with variations between residents in urban and rural communities....