Self-Management Practice of Minor Pregnancy Disorders and Associated Factors Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics at Tulu Bolo General Hospital, Ethiopia.

Background: The minor disorders of pregnancy are a series of commonly experienced disorders like nausea and vomiting, frequency of urination, heartburn, constipation, back pain, leg cramps, disturbance of sleep, and varicosities that mostly affect women during pregnancy. Across the world, due to a lack of self-management practice and less attention to minor disorders of pregnancy, pregnant women are exposed to major disorders of pregnancy, which have a negative impact on quality of life, and pregnancy outcomes. Most previous studies gave attention to the knowledge of minor pregnancy disorders and limited self-management practices of minor pregnancy disorders.

Objective: To assess the self-management practice of minor pregnancy disorders and associated factors among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at Tulu Bolo General Hospital, Southwest Shewa, Ethiopia, 2022.

Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from August 1 to September 30, 2022. Among 403, pregnant women were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. A structured and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered in Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS window version 26 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were done to identify variables associated with the self-management practice of minor pregnancy disorder in the binary logistic regression model. A statistical significance was declared at P-value < .05. Finally, tables, graphs, and narration were used to present the data.

Results: A 397 study participants were included with a response rate of 98.5%. This study revealed that 29.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 24%, 34%) of women had good self-management practices for minor pregnancy disorders. The age of the pregnant women (AOR = 4.4; 95% CI: 1.64, 11.60), household wealth status (AOR = 3.6; 95% CI: 1.68, 7.97), women's education status (AOR = 5.8; 95% CI: 2.16, 16.03) and (AOR = 4.11; 95% CI: 1.30, 12.97), women's occupation (AOR = 2.44; 95% CI: 1.09, 5.45), and knowledge on minor pregnancy disorders (AOR = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.12, 3.79) were identified as statistically significant factors.

Conclusions and recommendations: These findings showed that 70.7% of pregnant women were found to have had a lack of good self-management practices for minor pregnancy disorders. Hence, counseling and enhancing their knowledge of self-management should be provided to pregnant women to enhance their awareness regarding self-management practices of minor pregnancy disorders.