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The extensiveness of overweight and obesity among pregnant women is a growing public health concern in the developed countries, as it related to adverse pregnancy outcomes. This problem is considered by World Health Organization as a major health challenges. This study aimed to assess the pregnant women's knowledge toward obesity, gestational weight gain, and the safe method to prevent this gain. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted for 400 pregnant women who attended the antenatal care units in eight of Primary Health Care Centers, from 1 st of August to the 20 th of October 2016. They have been directly interviewed by a structured questionnaire to identify their knowledge regarding their weight and Body Mass Index category, their ideas toward the complications of excessive weight gain during pregnancy, and the safe preventive effective management. A bit less than half of the sample (46.3%) were within normal weight, and 208(52%) of participants were overweight or obese, while 137 (36.8%) of them believed that they were overweight and obese. The difference weight gain between first and third trimester of pregnancy was (10.7 Kg), and (91.3 %) agreed that the physical activities and the advices about them were the main ways to prevent the excess weight gain. The majority of pregnant women had limited knowledge about obesity or overweight, excessive gestational weight gain and their adverse effects during pregnancy. The effective media, professional healthcare and providing health education programs are required to improve the level of this knowledge.

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Female urethral catheterization is a common nursing procedure using during patients hospitalization. Improper insertion can lead to urethral injuries & increase risk of urinary tract infections. Educating and training nurses provide skills based on knowledge and result in minimized catheter associated complications. The aim of the study is to find out the role of training program in improving nurses knowledge and performance skills of female urethral catheterization.The study was quasi-experimental study design was conducted in maternity hospital in Dohuk city-Iraq. A convenience sample of 31 nurses from different units was used to demonstrate the effect of training programs. A knowledge questionnaire & a performance skills checklist were used to collect the data. The study showed that 45.2% of the study nurses', years of experience were less than 5 years and with diploma degree. The low level of nurses' knowledge 74.2% was detected in pre-test while in post-test the good level of nurses' knowledge was increased to 83.9% as effect of training program. Moreover, 96.8% of the nurses scoring a low performance skills level in pre-test, while it was achieved that all nurses scoring good performance level at post-test. No association was found between nurses' knowledge, performance skills and nurses job characteristics; only association was found between nurses' performance skills and years of experience.The training program have positive outcome on nurses' knowledge and performance skills in regards to the female urethral catheterization.