Abstract:
Background: Avoidable maternal mortality remains a huge burden in sub-Saharan Africa. Expectant mothers are faced with life-threatening complications which a Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness plan helps to actively avoid. Birth preparedness and complication readiness are pivotal strategies pertaining to promote the timely use of skilled maternal and neonatal care, especially during childbirth. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess Birth preparedness and complication readiness among women who gave birth in the last 12 months prior to the study period in Lasta-Lalibela district. Methods: A community based mixed methods involving both quantitative and qualitative surveys were conducted in February 2019. Multistage sampling technique was employed for quantitative study whereas non-probability purposive sampling method was used for qualitative study. Study participants were interviewed using pretested structured questionnaires for the quantitative study while focus group discussions for the qualitative study. The collected data were entered and cleaned using Epi-data 3.1 and transferred to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Associations between variables were tested using the Chi-square test. Logistic regression was computed to observe the effect of independent variables on outcome variables. Statistical significance was set at p <0.05. Results: Majority (80.2%) of the respondents attended at least one Antenatal care visit in their last pregnancy while 34.4% attended 4 or more visits. About 80.2% respondents gave birth at health facility in last delivery and 48.5% of the women accessed transportation service. Wherein, 43.5%, 34.3% and 5.6% of the women were knowledgeable on danger signs of pregnancy, labor, and postpartum period respectively. Accordingly, 45.8% of the women were prepared for birth while 80.0% and 62.8% were arranged for facility birth and identified transportation mode respectively. Significant predictors for being well-prepared include; history of antenatal care in previous pregnancy (AOR = 4.48, 95% CI = 2.68, 7.40), attending multiple antenatal care visits (AOR=6.06, 95% CI=2.99, 12.24), being pregnant for the first time/ primigravida (AOR =2.1, 95% CI: 1.26, 3.52), birth at health facility in last delivery(AOR = 4.65, 95% CI = 2.56, 8.44), being aged below 21 during the first pregnancy(AOR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.11, 5.26), being knowledgeable on danger signs of pregnancy(AOR = 2.96, 95% CI = 1.04, 8.47) and history of past obstetric complications(AOR = 4.66, 95% CI = 2.05, 10.59). FGD participants identified that poor infrastructure facility or limited transportation access as the most important barrier for birth preparedness and complication readiness practices in the area. Conclusions: Birth preparedness and complication readiness practice in the study area was found to be minimal. However, prominent information gaps were observed on key danger signs of obstetric complications and BPCR. Therefore, much works need to be done on the areas to increase awareness and access to important health information to promote maternal care
