Knowledge, attitude and practices of Ramadan fasting on health and disease among pregnant Muslim women in urban health centre of a medical college

Background: Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan entails abstinence from food, water, smoking and drugs from dawn to sunset. In Islamic religious rule fasting during Ramadan is not mandatory if there is any contraindication such as illness, old age, pregnancy, etc. Many studies have shown that most Muslim women choose to fast during pregnancy because of a sense of religious duty, familial support, positive views on fasting and difficulty in completing the missed fasts at another time. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 124 pregnant Muslim women attending urban health centre for antenatal care during the month of Ramadan at Davanagere city. Data was entered in the Microsoft Excel and presented in the form of frequencies. Results: In this study majority of pregnant women believed that fasting during pregnancy is harmful to mother as well as child. Overall, 80.6% of pregnant women did not observed fasting during pregnancy. Conclusions: In this study majority of the pregnant women did not observed fasting during the month of Ramadan. Health education should be given to all pregnant women and family members regarding adverse effect of fasting on mother and child health.