A rapid assessment of anaemia in pregnancy in West Bengal with special reference to care seeking behaviour of mothers.

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional study was conducted among the pregnant women in three administrative divisions of West Bengal to undertake a rapid assessment about the magnitude of the problem of anaemia in pregnancy and also to study care seeking behaviour for the same. The findings revealed that the occurrence of anaemia in these three divisions were very high to the extent of 86.39% and popularly known as 'Raktasunyata" or 'Raktalpata' to the common people. As per WHO guidelines (< 40% prevalence) it could be considered as public health problem of very high magnitude. Caregivers prescribed iron supplementation only in 70% of registered pregnant women when 100% coverage of pregnant women with IFA tablet is our national goal. Amongst this group 72.2% were partially consuming these tablets. Main reason for irregular or partial consumption was inability to purchase iron tablets (52.63%). Around 16% mothers were taking rest for 2 hours at daytime during pregnancy. Most important reasons for not consuming iron tablets were that iron was prescribed on the day of study (43.18%) and iron was not prescribed even though mothers were registered (36.23%). Focus group discussion highlighted some factors regarding improvement of the situation.