INVOLVEMENT IN EXERCISE AND PERCEIVED BENEFITS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CARE IN THE TEACHING HOSPITALS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA.
Abstract
Exercise is essential during pregnancy for a woman's overall health, including her mental and physical well-being as well as the success of her pregnancy and delivery. Women would be more likely to exercise if they were given timely and adequate information about the benefits of physical activity during pregnancy. This study employed a cross-sectional descriptive research design and multistage sampling technique was used to select 154 participants for this study. Sixty-five (65) pregnant women and eighty-nine (89) pregnant women were selected from the antenatal clinic in Babcock University Teaching Hospital and Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital respectively. A self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection from the research participants. The manually collected data were analyzed electronically with the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. Three research questions and hypothesis were raised in this study. The study findings shows that 50% of the respondents are involved in exercise during pregnancy while the others did not. The result also reveals that 59.1% of the respondents have positive perception about the benefits of exercise among pregnant women. The study opined that pregnant women attending antenatal care in the teaching hospitals in Ogun State were involved in exercise during pregnancy, also the study concludes that respondents have positive perception about benefits of exercise among pregnant women. Considering the findings it was recommended among others that nurses in the area should also include benefits of exercise in their health talks during antenatal clinic to prevent the negative perception that some pregnant mothers may have women should start with 15 min of exercise three times a week and gradually increase to 30 min four times a week at low-to moderate intensity and cultural beliefs about exercise in pregnancy should be addressed in health talks
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