Abstract:
Background: Awareness of the danger signs of pregnancy is thus the first step to seeking
appropriate and timely referral to emergency obstetric care and this reduces the first and
second delays.Even though there is significant improvement in utilization of antenatal care,
there is alimited information about the level of knowledge on danger signs of obstetric
complications among pregnant mothers.
Objectives: To assess knowledge about danger signs of obstetric complications and associated
factors among pregnant mothers in Jigjiga Town, Ethiopian Somali Regional State, Ethiopia,
February 1-18 / 2018.
Methods and materials: A community based cross sectional study was employed from
February 1- 18.The study was conducted in 7 randomly selected kebeles from 20 kebeles in
jigjiga city among 442 randomly selected pregnant women using interview administered
questionnaire. Data entry and analysis was performed by epidata version 3.1 and SPSS version
20 software respectively.
Result: Knowledge of a mother about obstetric danger signs indicates, 162 (37.9 %) (95% CI
33%, 42%) respondents were knowledgeable about obstetric danger signs in all categories
(pregnancy, Labor/delivery and postpartum). The odds of knowledge on obstetrics danger
signs increased for mothers have formal education (AOR=9.0, 95CI%=4.5-17.8), husbands
who have formal education (AOR=2.0, 95 CI%=1.1-3.5), those who have mass media access
(AOR=7.2, 95 CI %=4.0-12.9) and mother who had ANC (AOR=4.8, 95CI%=2.8-8.3) with
their respective counter parts.
Conclusion and recommendation: this study showed low level knowledge of obstetric
danger signs during pregnancy, child birth and postpartum period among women in Jigjiga
City. There is a need to promote antenatal care and provide information via mass media about
danger signs of obstetrics complications
