BIRTH PREPAREDNESS AND COMPLICATION READINESS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING TWO ANTENATAL CLINICS IN KANO, NIGERIA

Abstract

Objective: The main aim of the study is to determine Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPCR) and its associated factors among pregnant women attending two antenatal clinics in rural and urban settings in Kano, Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 397 antenatal clients, who visited Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Maryam Sani Abacha General Hospital, Gezawa during the study period of six weeks, four days from 15th September to 30th October, 2015. A sampling by convenience was carried out on the patients who met the selection criteria and were recruited into the study. A face to face interview was conducted and questionnaires were filled to detect the prevalence of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness and its associated factors. Results: This study established the prevalence of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness among the pregnant women in rural and urban areas to be 39.4% and 94.7% respectively. The factors that were statistically significantly associated with Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness were age, education, gestation age and antenatal clinic visitation, but only education and gestation age were found to be good predictors of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness. Other factors had no significant association with Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness. Knowledge of danger signs was found to be very low in both rural (0.8%) and urban (5.7%) settings. Conclusion: This study established the prevalence of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness among the pregnant women in rural and urban areas to be 39.4% and 94.7% respectively. The prevalence of knowledge of danger signs of pregnancy was found to be significantly low in both rural (0.8%) and urban (5.7%) women with the most common danger sign known being vaginal bleeding and the least being prolonged labour beyond 12 hours. Multivariate analysis revealed education level and gestation age as the factors that were significantly associated with Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness. Those with higher education level were found to be more likely prepared than those with lower education status. Finally, those at 27 to 40 weeks’ gestation age were found to be more likely prepared than those with pregnancy at 16 to 26 weeks’ gestation age.