Abstract:
Annually around three million children die due to congenital anomalies and it is a leading factor for infant
morbidity. In Sri Lanka a major cause for neonatal death is fetal anomalies. The objectives were to assess the
knowledge and attitudes of pregnant women regarding pre conception care, causes and risk factors and
prevention of fetal anomalies. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in university antenatal clinic (5 climes) of Teaching Hospital,
Mahamodara (THM). Non probability convenience sampling method was used to select the sample. An
interviewer-administered, pretested questionnaire was used. The knowledge domain of the questionnaire was
categorized as; poor (00-39.9%), average (40-59.9%) and good (60-100%). Ten questions were used to assess
the attitude domain. It was evaluated by calculating the percentages of positive and negative responses. Hundred and fifty pregnant women participated in this study. Majority (70%) was below 30 years of age, and
53.3% had educated up to G.C.E. O/L. Majority (53.3%) was multigravida and 62% were planned pregnancies.
Higher proportion of the participants; 61%, 56.7% and 82% had good knowledge on the risk factors, pre
conception care and preventive measures of birth defects respectively. Considerable proportion (26.7%) had
poor knowledge regarding birth defects. Majority (95.3%) of the participants was interested to know more
information on birth defects, and 72% of them believed that birth defects were due to evil spirits. Although 52%
of women did not want to terminate their pregnancy if they had a fetus with anomalies, 80.7% of them said that
the termination of pregnancy with birth defects should be legalized. The educational level, parity and planning of
current pregnancy were significantly correlated (P<0.05) with their knowledge on pre conception care,
preventive actions, risk factors and overall knowledge on birth defects. Seventy-six percent received
information on birth defects by Public Health Midwife.
