[Conscious family planning among women living the Łódź area, including their education and nature of work].
BACKGROUND
The aim of this research was to analyze and critically evaluate knowledge of conscious preparation for motherhood and proper control of the course of pregnancy among women, aged 17-35, representatives of social and occupational groups in the region of Łódź.


METHODS
The research tool was a questionnaire survey, conducted in a grpup of 455 women, living in the Łódź, agglomeration and representing schoolgirls and students, female white collar and blue-collar workers, including: teachers and office workers. The developed questionnaire included questions concerning: knowledge about risks for pregnancy and knowledge of pregnancy preparation. To assess the level of knowledge about the preparation for planned pregnancy the quantitative indicator was used. The value of the indicator expressed the number of points obtained by respondents for their knowledge of specific harmful factors and diagnostic tests, which play an important role during pregnancy.


RESULTS
Knowledge of more than 50% of respondents was rated "less than good". The level of knowledge about preparation for pregnancy differed significantly in particular age, education and occupational groups. It was observed that about 57% of respondents did not have sufficient knowledge about the need to control blood glucose level before and during pregnancy, 33% did not know about harmfulness of passive smoking, and 34% about the need of using folic acid.


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of the proper preparation for pregnancy among professionally active women needs to be significantly enhanced. Knowledge among teachers who should be an important source of essential information is not satisfactory and should also be better developed. Intervention programs concerning the preparation for pregnancy should be differentiated according to age, education and occupational status of recipients.
Uniwersytet Medyczny, Łódź. barbara.wronska@umed.lodz.pl
Barbara
B
Wrorńska
D000328:Adult; D003267:Contraception; D004522:Educational Status; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011044:Poland; D017584:Reproductive History; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016387:Women's Health; D055815:Young Adult