الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Prenatal care is an essential component of the maternity health services. Its provision is necessary to meet the needs of mothers during this stage and to overcome any difficulty. The importance of prenatal care must be communicated and constantly stressed being one of the most preventi ve’m,~asures contributing to the reduction of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Aspects of prenatal care are many. Most of these aspects can only be dealt wi th effectively by personal action on the part of the mother. Therefore, in addition to health supervision, each pregnant woman should have enough correct information about health practices during pregnancy. Health education programs should be planned and implemented for pregnant women to meet their needs. The present study was designed to assess knowledge, beliefs and practices of pregnant women regarding items of care during pregnancy and to propose a prenatal health education program according to the results obtained. The study was carried out in 6 MCH centers and 4 prenatal health insurance outpatient clinics in Alexandria Governorate. The target population was pregnant women in the third trimester during their prenatal visits. The total sample was 347. The tool used was an interview questionnaire designed to collect the following data: Identification and socio-economic characteristics, data about knowledge, beliefs and practices of pregnant women regarding attendance to prenatal, nutrition during pregnancy, effect of drugs and smoking on pregnancy outcome, danger signals of pregnancy, some minor discomforts of pregnancy, exercises, vaccination, breast care and dental care during pregnancy. Analysis of the collected data revealed the following results: -Identification and socioeconomic characteristics: * The mean age of the studied pregnant women was 28.51~5_17 years. * The family size of the majority of the sample ranged from 2 4 persons while only 17 had large families (~5 persons). * Most of the clients of MCH centers were of low socio economic level, while most-of health insurance clients were of high socio-economic level. * About half of the sample were poorly educated (31.41 illiterates and 18.16 ~ 9 years education). While secondary and university educated mothers constituted 32.56 and 17.87 respectively. .Attendance for Drenatal care: * Only 29.68 of the total sample started prenatal care in the first trimester while 51.30 and 19.02 started care in the second and third trimesters respectively. * Pregnant women’s level of education, gravidity and knowledge regarding ideal time to start prenatal care significantly affect the trimester in which they started prenatal care. * Most of the sample (61.31) believed in prenatal care importance. While the remaining 38.62 believed that it is not important.