Abstract:

Background: Pregnant women are at a high risk both neonatal tetanus and tetanus, with lack TT vaccine being the most common cause of tetanus and neonatal among pregnant women. Despite the well-known importance of tetanus toxoid vaccine uptake during pregnancy, awareness to these vaccines is relatively low and associated factors were not well identified in the study area. This study is aimed at investigating awareness and also the knowledge and reason of inappropriate uptake of TT vaccine among pregnant woman attending RCH clinic at Kambarage health centre in Shinyanga, Tanzania associated factors among pregnant women in Kasulu district, north-western Tanzania

Methods: This was a cross-sectional outpatient based study conducted from July to August 2023 Convenience sampling was used, in which the 92 pregnant women attending RCH at Kambarage health center were involved based on their accessibility and availability to the respective day of research data collection. A structured questionnaire was given to 92 pregnant women.

Results/discussion: From the this study conducted at Kambarage health centre where 92 women were assess only 89% have heard about TT vaccine and among the 89% pregnant women only 56% were aware of TT vaccine uptake was required for pregnant women were about 44% of 89% who were aware lack knowledge on whether its important towards pregnancy and 11% total did not hear about the TT vaccine. This puts a point that there is low level of awareness among women attending kambarage health centre.

Conclusion: Awareness of pregnant mothers on the uptake of TT vaccine is still low. Strengthening systems for creating reminding mechanism, raising community awareness through educational programs to pregnant women and health providers could improve awareness towards TT vaccine