Knowledge of birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria

Background: Avoidable maternal mortality remains a huge burden, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Expectant mothers have faced life life-threatening complications that birth preparedness and complication readiness plan help to actively avoid. Objective: The study assessed knowledge of birth preparedness and complication readiness among women in selected health care facilities in Enugu State. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based method was adopted. Multiple stage sampling was used to select 422 pregnant women from 8 selected health care facilities for the study. A validated structured questionnaire developed by the researchers was used for data collection. Findings were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: Findings revealed that only 20.5% of the respondents had good knowledge of the components of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness(BPCR) Most of the respondents 87.6% lacked good knowledge of key danger signs of pregnancy, labour and postpartum, while the majority of the respondents 78.6%, 96.7% and 95.5% knew that vaginal bleeding is a key danger sign of pregnancy, labour and postpartum respectively. Age P=0.000, marital status P=0.001, level of education P=0.000 and occupation P=0.000 of the respondents had significant relationships with their knowledge of BPCR. Conclusion: There was poor knowledge of BPCR among the studied population. There is a need for nurses and midwives to intensify health education on the components of BPCR, and key danger signs of pregnancy, labour and post-partum during an antenatal visit.