Benazeer Mahar1, Habib Akhtar Bahalkani, Salwa Shafat.
Birth preparedness among the antenatal clients of public and private hospitals of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;3(4):6-10.

Introduction:Birth preparedness move a-head preparation and arrangement for delivery has been worldwide endorsed as a decisive constituent of safe motherhood program to minimize delays for care .It will help ensure that women can arrive at skilled delivery care when labor begins or in case the obstetric complications occur. This study analyzed the Birth preparedness of antenatal clients of private & Public Hospitals of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. The Objective of study was to determine awareness level of pregnant women regarding danger signs of obstetrics complication and birth preparedness & complication readiness among the women attending private and public hospital of Bahawalpur for antenatal visit. Methods:An exit interview was conducted from 216 pregnant women by using validated, pretested adapted Questionnaire. First sample was selected by simple random sampling, for rest systematic random sampling was adapted by selecting every 7th women for interview. Ethical consideration was taken. Results:Results of our study showed that on average women knew only two possible danger signs of obstetric complications. Bleeding/placenta Previa was the most common danger sign listed by respondents of both health facilities. Birth preparation practices were insignificant, 68.5% respondents of private and 50.9 % of public hospitals identified health facility for delivery, while 48.1 % of private and 56.5% public hospital’s respondents had saved money for delivery. Least common arrangement was identification of blood donor and was reported by only 19.4 % clients of both hospitals. Knowledge regarding danger signs of obstetric complications and birth preparedness was highly associated with education and parity i.e. women with higher level of education and multipara were more aware than uneducated and primigravida. Conclusion:It is concluded that pregnant women who visited the private and public hospitals for antenatal checkups had limited knowledge about key danger signs of obstetric complications and hence very poor birth preparedness practices.

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