Relationship between Socio-demographic Characteristics and the Pattern of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness among the Pregnant Women Attending the Antenatal Clinic in UPTH

Abstract

Background: There was a target of 50% reduction in maternal mortality and 50% increased access to blood transfusion and emergency obstetric care services by 2006, by the Nigerian Reproductive Policy Act of 2001. In spite of the adoption of the birth preparedness and complication readiness (BP/CR) concept, Nigeria is yet to attain these reproductive goals for several years. There is a known established relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and patterns of BP among the pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH). Aim: Hence, this study was aimed at determining the sociodemographic characteristics and pattern of BP among the pregnant women attending the ANC in UPTH. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, hospital-based descriptive study involving pregnant women who attended the ANC of UPTH and gave birth in the same hospital from April 2021 to December 2021. A sample size of 282 eligible respondents was recruited through a systematic random sampling technique. The respondent’s data including information on sociodemographic characteristics were obtained with the aid of interviewer-administered questionnaires. A standard tool adapted from the safe motherhood questionnaire of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The level of significance was set for P ≤ 0.05. Results: The study showed that more than half of the respondents 155 (55.0%) were between the ages of 31 and 40 years with a mean age of 31.5 ± 4.9, while 111 (39.4%) of the respondents were between the age of 21 and 30 years. Furthermore, 136 (48.9%) of the respondents belonged to the Ijaw/South-South tribe, 116 (41.1%) of the respondents were Igbos, and 12 (4.3%) of the respondents belonged to the Yoruba tribe. In addition, the study revealed that 261 (92.6%) of the respondents belonged to a nuclear family, 149 (52.8%) had a family size of between 1 and 3, 190 (67.4%) of the respondents earned more than N100,000, and 110 (39.0%) had a parity of between two and three. The study indicated that for every one family that earns more than one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) but showed inadequate BP, there are 62 families that earned the same amount of money that showed adequate BP. Conclusion: The test for association (relationship) between sociodemographic characteristics and BP/CR showed that the income group of the respondents was significantly associated with BP/CR (χ2 = 14.149 and P < 0.01).

Keywords

• birth preparedness
• sociodemography
• university of port harcourt teaching hospital
• women