The aim of the study was determination of the scope of midwives' knowledge concerning nutrition of pregnant women, with the consideration of results of modern research and current recommendations in this area.

The material for the study was a questionnaire form completed by over 700 midwives from nine regions, prior to their training course in nutrition of women in pregnancy and during the lactation period. The percentage of respondents from individual regions was more or less equal, except for a small number of midwives from the Rzeszów Region. Midwives with long and very long period of employment participated in the study. Only 7.9% of the total number of midwives in the study had an occupational experience shorter than five years.

The greatest number of respondents had an opportunity to give advice in the field of nutrition. The great majority of midwives (approx. 90%) gave correct answers to questions concerning the necessity to increase proper groups of products in the nutrition of pregnant women. The midwives were also asked questions about the dose of folic acid recommended in prevention of neural tube defects. Less than 40% of respondents gave the correct answer to this question. Moreover, in some regions, knowledge of the correct dose of folic acid clearly differed from the average (among the total number of respondents the ratio between `correct answers' and `incorrect answers' was 40%:60%). Knowledge of the prophylactic dose was lower (22.9%) among the total number of midwives employed in hospitals, compared to those employed in regional outpatient departments, rural health centres and delivery rooms (44.7%).

Although the experimental group was not representative of all midwives employed in Poland, the analysis of the material collected enabled us to presume that there exists a deficiency in the basic scope of midwives knowledge concerning nutrition, and it is therefore necessary to expand post-graduate training of midwives in the area of correct nutrition. The study allowed us to establish that the deficiency in knowledge of nutrition is most clearly observed among midwives who had been performed their occupation for a period of more than ten years.

Słowa kluczowe: kobiety ciężarne, żywienie, położne, kształcenie medyczne, kształcenie podyplomowe, zapobiegawcze programy zdrowotne, pregnant women, nutrition, midwives, medical education, post-graduate education, preventive health programmes