Assessing the food habits of expectant mothers and the impact on the mothers and their babies- case of Mampong Municipal of Ashanti region – Ghana

Abstract

The study assessed the various food habits of expectant mothers, the factors that influence the formation of food habits and the impact on the mothers and the babies in Mampong Municipality in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Simple random sampling was used to select seven health centers in the municipality. A total of 100 randomly selected expectant mothers served as the subjects for the study. The major instrument used was questionnaire while observation schedule served as supplementary instrument. For the analysis of data, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 and analysis toolpak for Microsoft excel were used. These included simple percentages, frequency counts, and charts. The key finding of the study were that expectant mothers have various food habits in which 15 (15%) said they have good food habits and eight five (85) (85%) said they have bad food habit that influence the food they eat. There are factors that influence the formation of the food habits of the expectant mothers which are Religious/Cultural twenty-six (26) (26%), Socio-economic thirty-two (32) (32%), Education and mass media twenty-three (23) (23%) and Peer influence nineteen (19) (19%). Most of these mothers’ meals for the day do not have all the food nutrients in their right proportions. This is because the type of food habits they have do not allow them to get all the food nutrients in the meals they take during the day. These habits result in some nutritional impacts on the mothers which are; Loss of appetite twenty-two (22) (22%), Complications thirty-three (35) (35%), Diseases twentyfour (24) (24%) and Death nineteen (19) (19%); Deformity twenty (20) (20%), low birth weight twenty-two (22) (22%), heart diseases thirty (30) (30%), and mental retardation in the babies. These nutritional impacts can be avoided when the mothers are taught how to include all the food nutrients in their meals. All stakeholders of health, the government, nongovernmental organisations and private firms should come to the aid of the health centers with grants and donations to provide computers, relevant books and other materials to enhance effective teaching of food nutrition and health to the expectant mothers.