Background: Birth preparedness involves a collaboratory efforts between the couple, family and healthcare professionals to have a successful antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum period.
Purpose: This study assessed awareness, practice and factors influencing birth preparedness and complication readiness among women attending antenatal clinic at University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used for the study. A sample size of two hundred and thirty-eight (238) pregnant mothers utilizing maternal and child health service at UCTH, Calabar, random sampling technique was adopted, structured questionnaire was adopted for the instrument. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive charts, frequencies, tables and percentages. The hypothesis was tested for significance at 0.05 level, using Chi-square (X2) analysis.
Results: The result of the study showed that large proportion (73.5%) respondents have high level awareness of putting intervention in place for abnormal and obstructed Labour, while (26.5%) have low awareness. Majority (50.4%) respondents have high level practice, 39.1% have moderate practice, while 10.5% respondents have low practice. There is a statistical relationship between the level of awareness and practice of birth planned child birth as calculated value of 23.4 is higher than the P-value of 5.99 at 0.05 level of significant at 2 degree of freedom.
Conclusion: Adequate awareness and interventions put in place in case of slow progress of labour is an effective way of preventing maternal mortality.
