Awareness and practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness among antenatal clinic attendees in a tertiary Nigerian Hospital.

Abstract

Aims: The study aimed to assess the awareness and practice of BPCR among pregnant women attending Antenatal clinic of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.
Methodology: socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge on BPCR & obstetrics danger signs, implementation of the elements of BPCR and the barriers to the implementation were sought from 379 consenting pregnant women using a proforma in a cross sectional descriptive study from May 2021 to May 2022. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.
Results: The mean age of the women was 25.3 ± 3.6 years, married, with mostly tertiary education. Most of them reside at >5km away from the hospital. Most participants were not aware of the concept of BPCR. Majority of the participants had identified a health facility (94.7%), a skilled birth attendants (94.7%), and had saved money for delivery /emergency but no significant arrangement was made for transportation. The barriers to practice ranges from distance to the hospital, attitude of personnel, financial constraint to lack of a potential blood donor.
Conclusion: There was poor awareness on BPCR among the participants. The practice level of BPCR was generally good, yet the participants had least practice of transportation arrangement as a component of BPCR. The barriers to the implementation of BPCR were due
to distance to the hospital and maltreatment from health personnel among others.