Abstract

The study aimed to assess the nutritional knowledge, practices and packed cell volume of expectant mothers attending antenatal clinic in FMC Abuja. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was adequately checked and validated. It was also pretested for sensitivity of questions, ambiguity and suitability of language. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select two hundred and fifty-six (256) pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at FMC Abuja. None of the women was interviewed more than once. Ethical approval was gotten from the Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of FMC Abuja. The IBM SPSS statistics version 23 was used for the statistical analysis. Results were presented in tables using frequencies and simple percentages. Chi square statistics was used to determine associations between variables and significance was taken at P< 0.05%. There was a significant association between marital status (P-value= 0.021), occupation (P-value= 0.026), monthly income (P-value= 0.003), and packed cell volume of the expectant mothers. Whereas age, religion, and educational status were not statistically significant (P > 0.05) with the packed cell volume of the expectant mothers. Packed cell volume of expectant mothers is affected by occupation, income and nutritional practices. A targeted nutrition education program should be introduced to improve the practices of already acquired knowledge of nutrition amongst the expectant mothers to ensure optimal maternal and fetal wellbeing.