Birth preparedness and obstetric health complications: A study based on a tertiary hospital of Mumbai

A quantitative study was carried out in a tertiary-care hospital to examine the level of birth-preparedness and experience of obstetric health complications among women those were from lower socio-economic strata of Mumbai. Asemi-structured questionnaire was developed and open-ended questions were included to interview 300 women who delivered during January-May 2013 in the selected hospital. Total eight components of birth-preparedness was considered in the study and a woman that satisfied at least three of the components was considered as ‘well-prepared’. About 67% of the women satisfied any one component of birth-preparedness, while proportion was low for well-prepared (23.7%). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between birth-preparedness and any complication during pregnancy. Women with health complications were more likely to be well-prepared for the birth compared to their counterpart because they needed more care for safe delivery. However preparedness for birth was decreases with increasing in parity. Similarly well-prepared women had a lesser probability of developing any delivery complications. In this study ethnicity and education was found as strong predictors of birth-preparedness. Although a large proportion reported of less-preparedness, so it is very much important to make women aware of the importance of birth-preparedness for better health outcome.