title: Awareness and Attitudes Regarding Prenatal Sex Determination, Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDTA) among Pregnant Women in Southern India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was conducted to assess the awareness and attitude regarding prenatal sex determination and Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic techniques Act among pregnant women.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study was carried at tertiary care teaching hospitals of Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore, India among 132 pregnant women. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) version 11.5 and results were expressed in percentages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 132 participants and the mean age of study subjects was around 27 y. Majority of the study subjects (91.7%) knew that prenatal sex determination was possible. Three fourth (74.4%) of the participants prenatal sex determination was a punishable offence. One of the participants was ready to terminate pregnancy if sex of the fetus was revealed to be female before second trimester. Majority of participants (67.4%) were willing to educate people about PCPNDT act and motivate them against sex determination and sex selective abortions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that higher proportion of participants knew about the prenatal sex determination and it was a punishable offence, still majority of them preferred to know the sex of unborn child which shows the need to implement the act effectively.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Nithin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Darshan
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) Mangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Bhaskaran
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Unnikrishnan
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) Mangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Tanuj
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanchan
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Rekha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thapar
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Prasanna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mithra
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors.forename: Vaman
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University) , Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Holla
keywords: Ante-natal; Mangalore; PCPNDT act; Sex-determination; Sex-ratio