Background: Maternal mortality remains a leading public health crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria contributing disproportionately to global maternal deaths. Birth preparedness and complication readiness (BPCR) is a safe motherhood strategy designed to reduce life-threatening delays in accessing skilled obstetric care. However, evidence on its uptake in primary health care settings in Osun State, Nigeria, remains limited. This study assessed birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic in Ede North Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria, examining their knowledge of obstetric danger signs, attitudes toward BPCR components, level of implementation, and factors influencing BPCR practices. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Using a simple random sampling technique, 220 pregnant women were recruited from five primary health care facilities. Data were collected via a structured, pretested questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were computed, and chi-square tests were applied to assess associations between variables at a 5% significance level. Results: The majority of respondents (40%) were aged 26–35 years, married (50%), monogamous (80%), Christian (59.1%), Yoruba (77.7%), and had a tertiary education (45.5%). Knowledge of obstetric danger signs was moderate to good across the pregnancy (52.3%–75%), labor (50.9%–59.1%), and postpartum (51.4%–51.8%) phases. Attitudes toward BPCR were highly positive, with 93.2% affirming the value of antenatal clinic attendance and 95.5% endorsing spousal involvement. Implementation levels were high: 88.2% identified a preferred delivery site, 89.1% saved funds for delivery, 94.6% procured essential materials, and 90.0% arranged a birth companion. Key inhibitors included low education and income (93.2%), cultural beliefs (93.2%), inadequate health facilities and personnel (72.8%), and poor community support (72.7%). While birth preparedness and complication readiness practices were generally high among antenatal attendees in Ede North, systemic barriers continue to undermine optimal implementation. Multi-level interventions targeting education, health infrastructure strengthening, community mobilization, and spousal engagement are urgently needed to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality in the region.
Olagunju et al. (Thu,) studied this question.