Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Pregnant Women on PMTCT Services at Kawolo Hospital Buikwe District.

Abstract

Improved PMTCT uptake and knowledge on how to reduce the risk of MTCT was observed in Kawolo Hospital, where 57.5% of pregnant women were tested for HIV after counseling and 91.7% were willing to take up PMTCT drugs.

The main study objective was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practices of pregnant mothers on use of PMTCT services in Kawolo Hospital Buikwe District. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 120 pregnant mothers as sample size selected under systematic random sampling at the antenatal clinic Kawolo hospital. Exit interviews were conducted from September to October 2014.

The study found out that, 95(79.17%) had heard about PMTCT and 25(20.83%) and majority came to know through friends (55.83), hospital (51.67%), radios and television (47.5%) and lastly news papers and seminars. majority of pregnant mothers had heard about PMTCT drugs72 (60%) and 48(40%) had not heard about PMTCT drugs where most of them mentioned Nevirapine syrup and ART. Most mothers 81(67.5%) mentioned that HIV positive mother should give birth and only 39(32.5%) did not agree with HIV positive mother giving birth. Majority of the pregnant mothers 72(60%) had done something to prevent MTCT where most of them stated by testing for HIV (50%), delivering in hospital (25%).

These results suggest that supporting women through ANC, education and during pregnancy would be an important intervention for her health including PMTCT. It has also been shown that those mothers who always attended ANC were more knowledgeable about PMTCT than those who did not. Furthermore, the observation that there might be concerns regarding disclosure of one’s status in relation to fear and stigma therefore every partner has to be involved.