Towards Safe Motherhood in Sri Lanka: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices During the Period of Maternity

Abstract

The knowledge road to health has many pitfalls -and women in less developed countries and particularly those who are poor, illiterate and unemployed, face crucial tradeoffs when they attempt to fulfil their biological, social and other needs. However, maternal health has been recognized in almost all developing countries to be of great importance since the satisfaction of the basic needs of children at every phase of their life is closely linked to the well-being of the mother; the dependence being greatest during pregnancy, and continuous during infancy. [1]Therefore, a variety of communication channels such as the newspaper, radio, television and health personnel in developing countries are devoted to improving the mother's knowledge, attitudes and practice of maternal health. However, many mothers still experience conflicts putting new knowledge into action due to the practical and external difficulties prevailing in each area, such as inadequacy of facilities and illiteracy.