Knowledge and Practice of Birth Preparedness among Tribal Women in Sukma District of Chhattisgarh, India

Abstract

Background: In developing countries, complications during pregnancy and childbirth are still a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. Birth preparedness promotes maternal healthcare service utilization to ensure safe motherhood by reducing the delay in deciding to seek care, reaching the health facility and receiving care. Objective: To assess knowledge and practice of birth preparedness among tribal women in Sukma district, Chhattisgarh. Methods: Cross sectional study was conducted in month of May-June 2013. 146 respondents were interviewed using interview schedule in twenty villages out of fifty-two village’s selected using simple random sampling method. Data entry and analysis was done in SPSS version 20. Level of significance was fixed at 5%. Results: Out of the total 146 respondents, 49.3% were pregnant and 50.7% were recently delivered women. Majority of respondents (82.9%) knew about antenatal care checkup and 91% had received any antenatal care services. 21.1% had knowledge of at least three danger signs. Those respondents who had knowledge of five or more birth preparedness element were categorized as “well birth prepared”. Less than one third (29.5%) of respondents were well birth prepared. Knowledge of place of birth and distance of PHC to house were major determinant for practice of birth preparedness. Conclusions: Association of husband education and birth preparedness was an important finding that provides way to involve men in planning for birth; can guide and support the women during pregnancy and childbirth. There is a need to train traditional healer to detect signs and symptom of complication and manage complication. Providing the women exposure to health services through regular antenatal care visits and examination, will provide a platform for communication and information exchange between tribal women and skilled attendant, which will improve knowledge and practice of birth preparedness.