Practice of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness and Its Associated Factors:A Health Facility-Based Cross-Sectional Study Design

Time of labor or time of emergency is not the time to decide what to do, instead it is time to seek care from skilled health care providers. Birth preparedness and complication readiness is the process of planning for a normal birth and anticipating the action needed in case of an emergency, which helps to minimize obstetric complications. Even though birth preparedness and complication readiness reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality, the practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness is still low in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness and its associated factors among pregnant women who attended antenatal care in the public health facilities of Debre Tabor town, northwest, Ethiopia. A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 1/2022 to September 15/2022 among 397 pregnant mothers. The study was collected using a systematic random sampling technique and the collected data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio and considered significant at a confidence interval of 95% and a P-value of less than .05. The proportion of birth preparedness and complication readiness practice was found to be 32.2%. Having formal education, primigravida, starting antenatal care contact in the first trimester of pregnancy, having knowledge of danger signs of labor and delivery, and birth preparedness and complication readiness were significantly associated with the practice of preparedness and complication readiness. In this study area, the practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness was low. Therefore, it is important to strengthen counseling on the advantage of starting antenatal care contact early and creating awareness of birth preparedness and complication readiness.