Publication:

A study of birth preparedness of women in Jamnagar district, Gujarat, India

Background About 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and child birth globally. Birth-preparedness is a strategy developed by the maternal and neonatal health programme of JHPIEGO for addressing the three main delays at various stakeholder levels. Present study is an attempt to assess the level of birth preparedness of pregnant women in rural area of Jamnagar district and various factors associated with it.

Methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted during October 2011 to March 2012. Total live births in a year 2011 were 39943.90 and Taking 1% of total births ≈ 400, Adding 10% of non-response rate, total sample size was 440. Total 450 study subjects were chosen. The study-subjects were divided in 1) current pregnant women and 2) recent delivered women. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview women, chosen for the study using multistage random sampling technique and data was analysed by Epi Info.

Results It was found that only about one third of women i.e. 32.2% were prepared for birth and 67.8% women were not prepared. Out of 450 women, it was found that 86.2% of them planned for the skilled birth attendant, 59.6% women planned for saving money, about one third of women i.e. 37.6% had planned for transportation and only 2.7% women had planned for blood donor in case of emergency. Religion Hindu, literacy of women and their husbands, higher socio-economic status, advice given during pregnancy were some positive factors associated with birth preparedness.

Conclusions The level of birth preparedness in study subjects was found very low. Sincere efforts are required to identify this gap and reducing the same.