Anaemia in pregnancy is an important reproductive health problem associated with increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Despite the use of iron and folate supplementation, anti-helminthic and anti-malarial prophylaxis for pregnant women in Nigeria’s antenatal policy, the prevalence of anaemia is still high. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence, and pattern of anaemia among pregnant women at booking for antenatal care at Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Bida.
This is a cross- sectional studycarried out over a period of three (3) months among pregnant women booking for Antenatal Care (ANC) at FMC, Bida. Two hundred and forty eight (248) pregnant women were recruited using systematic sampling method. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS Version 20.
The mean age group of the respondents was 27.49±5.5 years with age range of 16 to 40 years. About half of the respondents had secondary education, (49.2%) and about a third of the respondents were Traders (34.6%) whose husbands earn <N==50,000 (47.6%). Majority of the subjects 132 (53.2%) were in the lower social class. The prevalence of anaemia in pregnancy in this study was 72.6% with mild anaemia (58.3%) constituting majority of the cases. Based on International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) classification 128(51.6%) had poor, 94 (37.9%) had fair, while 26(10.5%) had good nutritional status.
Prevalence of anaemia is quite high and hadworsened compared to the earlier studies carried out in 2008. There is need for preconception counseling and screening, early antenatal booking, proper management of febrile illnesses in pregnancy, routine deworming and fortification of stable foods with iron, in order to prevent anemia during pregnancy.

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