Objective  To examine the awareness of maternal health knowledge and its influencing factors among pregnant women in different regions of China for providing evidences to conduct targeted health education in the population.

  Methods   With convenient sampling, we recruited 2 599 pregnant women having antenatal examination or hospitalization for childbirth at six county-level maternal and child health institutions in the eastern, central and western regions of China and conducted an on-site mobile-based survey using a self-designed questionnaire from December 2019 to May 2020.

  Results  The awareness rate of maternal health knowledge was 31.36% for all the participants. The awareness rate (34.41%) of the participants with urban household registration was higher than that (29.37%) of the participants with rural household registration and the participants in the eastern region reported a higher awareness rate than those in the central and the western regions (41.57% vs. 28.08% and 26.38%); all the differences in the awareness rate were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). Medical staff consultation and new media were the most common ways of acquiring health knowledge, which were reported by 66.67% and 57.60% of the participants. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that aged 41 years and above, being a primipara, with the education of senior high school or above, acquiring the knowledge through multiple ways, and living in the eastern region were the promoting factors for the awareness on maternal health knowledge; while the hindering factors included having childbirth experience, with the education of junior high school and below, being unemployment, acquiring the knowledge through a single way, and living in the central or western regions were hindering factors.

  Conclusion  Among pregnant women in some regions of China, the knowledge level of maternal health is low and influenced mainly by age, fertility, education, occupation, living region, and ways of knowledge acquisition. The results suggest that multi-level and multi-channel professional education on maternal health should be promoted in the women.