Abstract:

Background: Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is a public health concern of global significance. Studies have demonstrated detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing fetus, including physical, cognitive, and behavioral abnormalities collectively known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Complications that have been mentioned to raise includes prematurity, low birth weight (LBW), miscarriage and abortion.

Objective: This study aims to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes of pregnant women on alcohol use and its related complications among pregnant women attending RCH clinic at BMC Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methods: Concurrent mixed methods approach was used in this study, which involved pregnant women attending RCH clinic at BMC Mwanza, Tanzania from May to June 2024. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire (n = 345) and the interview was considered especially for illiteracy respondents. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 in which descriptive analysis was used for frequency distribution of social demographic and logistic regression model was used to determine the association between social demographic information, knowledge and attitude of pregnant women on alcohol use. A variable was considered to be statistically significant in the final model by 95% confidence interval and a p- value of less than < 0.05.

Results: A total of 345 pregnant women participated in this study. The finding showed that 78% of all pregnant women were not knowledgeable, the factors associated includes: age group between 20 – 29 years of women were 3.21 times more not knowledgeable (AOR: 3.21, 95% CI: 0.28 – 18.69: p- value ≤ 0.021), women who were in their first parity and not knowledgeable were 1.65 times more likely to use alcohol during (AOR: 1.65, 95% CI: 0.73 – 3.57: p- value ≤ 0.023), business women who were not knowledgeable were 1.24 more likely to use alcohol during pregnancy (AOR: 1.24, 95% CI: 0.36 – 4.24: p- value ≤ 0.04). 68% of all pregnant women had good attitude and responded positively.

Conclusion: The finding emphasizes education and awareness campaigns are needed to inform the public about the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, there should be stricter regulation or laws regarding alcohol consumption by pregnant women.