Prevalence of harmful traditional practices during pregnancy and associated factors in Southwest Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of harmful traditional practices during pregnancy and associated factors in Southwest Ethiopia. DESIGN: A community-based cross-sectional study. SETTING: Southwest Ethiopia. PARTICIPANTS: 667 women who were pregnant at the time of the study or gave birth 2 years prior to the study have participated. OUTCOME OF THE STUDY: Harmful traditional practices during pregnancy (yes/no). Harmful traditional practices during pregnancy include abdominal massage, herbal intake or food taboos done on/by pregnant women without health professionals’ instruction. RESULTS: The prevalence of harmful traditional practices in the study area was 37%, 95% CI (33.4% to 40.8%). The most commonly practised activities were abdominal massage (72.9%), intake of herbs (63.9%) and food taboos (48.6%). Monthly income (AOR=3.13, 95% CI (1.83 to 5.37), p<0.001), having had no history of child death (AOR=2.74, 95% CI (1.75 to 4.29), p<0.001), women with no formal education (AOR=4.81, 95% CI (2.50 to 9.23), p<0.001), women who had antenatal care (ANC) visits during their last pregnancy (AOR=0.24, 95% CI (0.10 to 0.59), p=0.002) and being multipara (AOR=0.47, 95% CI (0.27 to 0.80), p=0.003) were significantly associated with harmful traditional practices during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that more than one-third of women in Southwest Ethiopia practised harmful traditional practices while they were pregnant. The practices were more common among primiparas, women who had lower educational and financial status, women with no ANC visits, and women with no history of child death. Health education should be given to the community about the complications of harmful traditional practices during pregnancy.