Author(s): Rina Patra and Ganga V Yenagi

Abstract:
The study was conducted to know about the pregnancy care practices in the urban and rural areas during the year 2015-16.The population of the study consisted of 100 pregnant women irrespective of their birth order in the urban and rural areas of Dharwad taluk, Karnataka as well as Kakatpur block, Odisha. A general information schedule consisted of items to collect information about the pregnant women regarding their age, locality, caste, height, weight, family type and family size was prepared and used. The socio-economic status was ascertained by using socio-economic status scale by Aggrawal et al. (2005)^[1]. A structured interview schedule was prepared to elicit the information from pregnant women about various aspects of knowledge and practices related to care provided during pregnancy. Results revealed that most of the urban participants were found to be having good knowledge on care during pregnancy regarding pregnancy, diet and nutrition, hospital delivery, tests and check-ups done during pregnancy, opinion on the tests done and government facilities available for pregnant women than the rural pregnant women. Locality was found to be having a highly significant association with knowledge of pregnancy care (χ² =23.29**) and highly significant difference (t=6.49**) was observed between the knowledge of pregnancy care among the urban and rural women.