Pregnant Women’s Knowledge Regarding Telemedicine as Antenatal Care Strategy during Corona Pandemic

Abstract

Background: A terrible illness known as COVID-19 is on the rise, and it has been demonstrated that it can have deadly effects on pregnant mothers and their unborn children. For maternal and fetal conditions, telemedicine has become essential to ensuring safe and effective health. Aim: assess pregnant women's knowledge regarding telemedicine to be used as antenatal care strategy during corona pandemic. Research Design: A descriptive exploratory design was utilized to conduct this study. Setting: The study was conducted in the Ante Natal Outpatient Clinic at Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital. Sample: Convenient sample consisted of 368 women from the previous mentioned setting. Tools: tool was used; structured interviewing questionnaire was used to assess general characteristics, medical and family history, obstetric history, and pregnant women's knowledge regarding telemedicine. Result: the current study revealed that 53.3% of studied sample had good knowledge about telemedicine. Conclusion: The present study was concluded that about half of pregnant women had satisfactory knowledge regarding telemedicine. Moreover, there was a high statistical significant relation between studied sample knowledge and their educational level with p value <0.001, also there is significance relation between knowledge and family income with p-value 0.010. Recommendation: Awareness programs should be developed up to raise women's knowledge regarding telemedicine services & Application of instructional guideline to healthcare providers to improve Obstetric services access via telemedicine after COVID-19 Further researches: evaluate the effect of educational programs regard telemedicine in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity among pregnant women during COVID19.