Background: IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) strategies may help pregnant women to prevent disease and to improve and maintain health. The present study was carried out with an aim to evaluate the effectiveness of IEC in improving the knowledge and practice regarding prevention/treatment of iron deficiency anaemia among the antenatal women attending Primary Health Centre in Puducherry.Methods: The present study was carried out in Puducherry, as a randomised control trial among antenatal mothers attending antenatal clinics in Primary Health Centre from February 2016 to August 2017. Block randomization technique was used to designate study participants into intervention and non-intervention groups. The minimum required sample size was calculated to be 84 in each group. Then intervention (Information, Education and Communication) was given to these antenatal women by using interpersonal communication methods, PowerPoint presentation and audio visual aids.Results: Correct responses to the questions were compared among the intervention and non intervention group in pre test and post test. It was noted that the proportion of correct responses were significantly higher among intervention group than that of non-intervention groups.Conclusions: Well planned and tailor made IEC material, acceptable by the regional population, by using various modes of interpersonal communication, improves the knowledge and practice of the antenatal mothers. It was also found that the haemoglobin levels of mothers in the intervention group were higher than the antenatal mothers who did not receive any IEC intervention.

BACKGROUND Nearly three fourth of all neonatal deaths and half of infant deaths occur among LBW infants. A progressive increase in both perinatal mortality and morbidity is observed as birth weight percentile falls. Early detection of intrauterine growth restriction is therefore important to institute specific treatment wherever possible or appropriately time the delivery. In a developing country like India, a simple sensitive clinical method is of utmost importance and cost effective. Hence this study is conducted to find the efficacy of clinical methods in detection of IUGR and estimation of foetal weight in relation to ultrasound. METHODS A longitudinal study of 200 low risk pregnant women who are attending the antenatal clinic with dating USG after 24 weeks of pregnancy were included in the study and serial symphysis fundal height measurements at each antenatal visit are taken. Suspected cases of growth restriction were subjected to USG for assessment and managed as per institutional protocol. Birth weight was compared with clinical and sonologically estimated weight. The entire data is statistically analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Ver. 21.0, IBM Corporation, USA) for MS Windows. RESULTS The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of clinical method (abdominal palpation), clinical method (SFH), and USG method (abdominal circumference) USG method (Estimated Foetal Weight) in detecting IUGR was 80-95% and their agreement with birth weight was statistically significant. The distribution of mean estimated weight by Johnson's formula is significantly higher compared to actual mean birth weight (p-value<0.001). The distribution of mean estimated weight by USG is significantly higher compared to actual mean birthweight (p-value<0.001). Since the mean difference in the weight is relatively lesser with narrow 95% confidence interval by USG than Johnson's formula, USG method has relatively better method than Johnson's formula for estimation of weight. CONCLUSIONS The efficacy of serial symphysio-fundal height measurement was found to be comparable with ultrasound in detection of IUGR. Of the two methods studied for estimation of foetal weight, ultrasonographic method, i.e., Hadlock's formula has better predictable results in foetal weight estimation, compared to clinical method, i.e., Johnson's formula.