Awareness and Practice of Birth Preparedness and Complications Readiness among Pregnant Women in the COVID-19 era in Fako Division, Cameroon

Background: Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness is a strategy to enhance the timely use of skilled maternal and neonatal care, especially during childbirth, based on the theory that preparing for childbirth and readiness for complications reduces delays in obtaining this care and reducing possible pregnancy risk. Sustainable Development Goal 3 has as one of its targets to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 births, with no country having a maternal mortality rate of more than twice the global average.

Following the intensity of the problem, it is necessary to investigate ways to curb marternal mortality which is an essential component which should begin with awareness, and practice of birth preparedness readiness and complications and inturn vital in the management and development of intervention measures.

Objective: of this study was to investigate the awareness and practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women in Fako Division.

Methods: This was a community -based cross sectional study carried out in the Fako division of the South West Region, Cameroon. 163 pregnant women of ≥28 weeks gestational ages seen at the antenatal consultation units were selected using convenient sampling method. Data collected was analysed with SPSS version 25.0 and Microsoft excel 2010.

Results: Of the 163 pregnant women included in this study, 129 (79.1%) were aware of birth preparedness and complication readiness. 136 (83.4%) had knowledge in recognising danger signs in pregnancy and Vaginal bleeding was the most frequent mentioned danger sign (72.4%). 80(49.1%) had excellent knowledge on danger signs, 59(36.2%) had good knowledge while 24(14.7%) had poor knowledge on key danger sign in pregnancy. The practice of birth preparedness and complication readiness, 47.9% had optimal practice, 37.4% had standard practice while 14.7% had poor practice.

Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that the awareness of birth preparedness and complication readiness was high. Few pregnant women lacked adequate preparations as required by the BPCR plan. The findings also indicated that the knowledge on danger signs in pregnancy among pregnant women in the BHD are high. Women’s knowledge of danger signs during pregnancy positively influenced their decisions regarding when to seek medical care and when to take appropriate action.