Pregnant Women's Perception of Intermittent Preventative Treatment of Malaria: A Study in Ho Municipality

Abstract

Controlling the enormous health impact associated with malaria has become a global priority. Despite the fact that malaria is a completely preventable and treatable disease, it still stands tall as one of the leading health problems in Ghana. Malaria in pregnancy is associated with negative outcomes for the mother, foetus and the neonate. The study investigated pregnant women‟s perception of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria using Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine the drug used for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of pregnant women towards antenatal care and their perceptions about the use of intermittent preventive treatment strategy for prevention of malaria during pregnancy. The objectives of the study were to determine the knowledge about the benefits of antenatal care services during pregnancy and to investigate the attitude and practices of pregnant women towards attending antenatal clinic. The study also aimed at investigating the perception and beliefs of pregnant women regarding the use of Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine while pregnant. The research design employed in this study was an exploratory qualitative method. The population for the study was all pregnant women in the Ho Municipality. The sampling size was based on saturation where no new information was obtained. Using semi-structured interview design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 participants. Data was analysed using Tesch in Creswell (2009) content analysis approach. The findings included five themes and several categories. These included knowledge on the benefits of antenatal clinic attendance by the pregnant women and the mode of administration of Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine. It was recommended that there should be in-service training for the midwives to be more vigilant when administering the Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine as some pregnant women pretend to be swallowing the tablet under the directly observed therapy whilst in actual fact, they take the drug home to be taken one tablet a day while others reported they throw away the tablets because they felt swallowing the three tablets at a go was dangerous for their unborn babies.