Abstract:

Background: Anemia is the commonest medical disorder in pregnancy and is associated with poor maternal and perinatal outcome. It is one of the most important health problems among women from 18 to 45 years of age in the world. Anemia in pregnancy is considered as one of the major risk factors for contributing 20-40% of maternal deaths directly or indirectly through cardiac failure, preeclampsia, antepartum hemorrhage, postpartum hemorrhage and puerperal sepsis. As well as to low birth weight, premature delivery which in turn might contribute to increased percentage for infant mortality in developing countries.

Methodology: A cross sectional study design was conducted at Sekou Toure regional hospital located at Nyamagana district in Mwanza region and pregnant women (n=250) were selected randomly. The obtained result were analysed using SPSS statistics 20 program and the obtained qualitative data was summarized categorically.

Findings: Among 250 pregnant women 211 (84.4%) women were anaemic based on their haemoglobin level at booking among these anaemic women 69(27.6%) had moderate anaemia, 142(56.8%) had mild anaemia and only 39(15.6%) had normal haemoglobin level. From this study 63 (25.2%) of women they have knowledge about anaemia in pregnancy they know the risk factors causes and prevention measure to take 187(74.8%) the know nothing about anaemia in pregnancy.

Conclusion and Recommendation: This study show that anaemia in pregnancy is still a significant problem majority of women attending antenatal clinic were found to be anaemic. Knowledge about anaemia causes, prevention, and treatment need to be addressed, as it was generally poor. If knowledge is lacking, this could be problematic for participants to make decisions based on sound information to reduce anemia risk.