Influence of Nutrient Intake and Workload on Maternal Outcome of Pregnancy in Selected Health Facilities of Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the influence of Nutrient Intake and Workload on the Maternal Outcome of Pregnancy in Selected Health Facilities of Abeokuta Ogun State. METHODS: Multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select 200 respondents using their clinic booking register. A 24-hr diet recall was used to obtain information on nutrient intake, occupation and house chores was estimated to assess maternal workload using Henriksen method with little modification on job duration and demand while the maternal outcome such as nature of delivery, Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Blood Pressure (BP) were assessed as secondary data from the maternal delivery records with details of all events that surrounded the delivery. All data was analysed using SPSS version 20.0, nutrient intake was analysed with nutri-survey software and compared with Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) while number of hours worked per day were analysed as a categorical variable according to conventional classification. The maternal outcome was classified according to UNICEF. Spearman correlation was use to draw possibly association between variables. RESULTS: The result shows that carbohydrate and protein intake exceeded the RDA while micronutrients (calcium, iron, magnesium vitamin A, E, B-complex and folate) were below RDA. Maternal workload shows that 69.60%, 20.00% and 10.70% of the respondents had low, moderate and high workload respectively. Maternal pregnancy outcome assessed revealed that 58.80% had spontaneous virginal delivery, 35.30% had caesarean sections, 3.30% was assisted with vacuum while 2.7% delivered by induction. Over half (52.50%) of the respondents had normal PCV before delivery and 80.80% were anemic after delivery. Prevalence of systolic and diastolic hypertension after delivery was 27.00% and 20.00% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The calorie, iron magnesium and vitamin C are significant to maternal workload while protein and iron intake are significant to nature of delivery had by the respondents. Low maternal workload favours spontaneous virginal delivery and minimize blood pressure before and after delivery. Increase workload reduces the PCV of the respondents by half. FUNDING SOURCES: Self-sponsored.