Factors Associated With The Occurance Of Post Partum Obesity: A Survey Of Women In Yenagoa, Local Government Area, Of Bayelsa State

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to ascertain the relationship between age parity, breastfeeding practices, mode of delivery, occupation of mother and postpartum obesity. This study was carried out in three (3) Primary Health Centers, a Federal Medical centre (FMC), and Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) all in Yenagoa, Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. A total of 400 postpartum mothers of 18-49years were randomly selected and questionnaires were administered. IBM Statistical package for Social sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used to analyze the data. The average weight before pregnancy was 76.83+/-13.69kg. Mean post pregnancy weight was 74.54+/- 13.53kg and mean height of 1.60+/-0.28 meters. Majority of the respondent 116(29.0%) have BMI of 25.0-29.9kg/m2 , meaning that majority were overweight with only (6.3%) underweight with BMI of less than 18.5kg/m2 . About 182(45.5%) of them were obsessed with BMI≥30.0kg/m2 . Based on these the result shows , the result has no significant relationship between parity, occupation of mother and the Body Mass Index of postpartum mothers; but there is a significant relationship (p ) between age of mother(p=0.00),practice of breastfeeding (p=0.02) and method of delivery of baby (p=0.00) with Body Mass Index of mother. Pregnancy has been cited as a contributor to overweight in women. This is as a result of excessive weight that is gained during pregnancy. It shows that indeed breastfeeding exclusively for 6-months and continuous breastfeeding till 2 years, age of mother and having normal baby delivery, helps to maintain a normal Body Mass Index of the mother.