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Article History

Received: 2 April 2025

Accepted: 25 May 2026

First Online: 16 June 2026

Declarations

:

: All protocols for this project were reviewed and approved by the Clarke International University (CIU) Research Ethics Committee (No. CLARKE-2024-1067), in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and CIU research guidelines. The same research ethics committee also approved the verbal informed consent. Permission to collect data from expectant mothers was obtained from the hospital administration of CUFHN. We obtained verbal informed consent in the local language from expectant mothers during face-to-face interviews, which made this procedure most suitable. The expectant mothers were informed that their participation was voluntary and that refusal would not result in negative consequences. The procedure for obtaining informed consent verbally was approved by the Clarke International University (CIU) Research Ethics Committee. To protect expectant mothers’ confidentiality, each participant was assigned a unique identifier in place of their name. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.