Objective  To investigate cognition of oral health and oral health status among pregnant women in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, so as to provide theoretical evidence for prevention strategy development for them.

Methods  Totally 527 pregnant women who visited the Department of Obstetrics, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from June 2016 to June 2017 were recruited as study subjects, and they received oral health knowledge questionnaire survey and oral health examination.

Results  Out of the respondents, 91.65% recognized that “brushing/gargling is one of the ways to clean teeth”, and 75.33% knew that “oral examination should be conducted regularly before/during pregnancy”. Only 15.18% of them knew the time of fetal tooth development. The prevalence of dental caries, calculus and gingivitis was 26.57%, 94.88%, and 92.79%, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the level of oral health cognition among pregnant women with household registration of Nanning, urban residence and higher education background was higher than that among pregnant women with non-household registration of Nanning, rural residence and lower education background (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion  Pregnant women have good cognition of oral health in Nanning, but they lack of knowledge of foetal tooth development. The cognition of oral health among pregnant women is closely related to household registration, residence, and education levels, etc. The rate of caries in pregnant women is not high, but their condition of oral hygiene and periodontal health is poor. Pregnant women should strengthen their knowledge learning of fetal oral health and oral health maintenance.