Knowledge of Antenatal Mothers Admitted in King Abdul-Aziz Medical City (KAMC), Riyadh Regarding Therapeutic Benefits of Post-Natal Exercises.

The physiological changes that happen during pregnancy and after delivery may affect every mother's quality of life. They may face chronic back pain and incontinence issues due to negligence of postnatal exercises. Though a large volume of scientific evidence suggests that post natal exercises are beneficial for preventing disorders and dysfunctions, we were interested in investigating the present level of knowledge regarding the therapeutic benefits of postnatal exercises among antenatal mothers. A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional prospective hospital-based study was carried out among 62 antenatal mothers by handing out a structured postnatal exercise knowledge assessment questionnaire. The result showed that majority of mothers who were admitted at King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in their third trimester had knowledge regarding postnatal exercises representing (70.53%) of the total participants, whereas only (29.47 %) of mothers were unaware of the benefits of postnatal exercises. However the mothers who had knowledge about the benefits of postnatal exercises were not all at the same level of awareness, which means that there were variations among their responses in each item of the questionnaire. It is evident from this study that higher number of antenatal mothers, who were admitted in King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in their third trimester, had knowledge regarding benefits of postnatal exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]