Effectivness of educational intervention programme on knowledge & practices regarding birth preparedness among primigravida women

Background: Maternal mortality is a substantial burden in developing countries. Improving maternal mortality has received recognition at the global level as evidenced by the inclusion of reducing maternal mortality in the Millennium Development Goals. High levels of perinatal (49 per 1,000 births), neonatal (39 per 1,000 live births) (International Institute for Population Sciences, 2007) and maternal mortality (301 per 100,000 live births) remain major public-health challenges in India. About one-third of neonatal deaths occur on the first day of life and the majority of maternal deaths occur during labour, delivery, and within 24 hours postpartum (Ronsmans et al., 2006) .Apart from medical causes, there are numerous interrelated socio- cultural factors which delay care-seeking and contribute to these deaths. Care-seeking is delayed because of the delay in (a) identifying the complication, (b) deciding to seek care, (c) identifying and reaching a health facility, and (d) receiving adequate and appropriate treatment at the health facility (Thaddeus, 1994) Prenatal education provide information and guidance to couples as they make their way through amazing transitions. An awareness of the benefits of preparing for pregnancy, an understanding of pregnancy, birth and the complications that can occur will help dispel any fear and can influence outcome. It is recognized that the couple who learn about pregnancy and childbirth are more likely to have better experience of labor and delivery. Objectives: • To assess knowledge of pregnant women on various elements of birth preparedness among study & control group. • To identify the practices of pregnant women on preparation for delivery & obstetrical emergencies among study & control group. • To assess effectiveness of educational intervention programme on birth preparedness among study & control group. • To find out association of demographic variables with birth preparedness among study & control group. Research methodology The approach selected was quantitative, design was Quasi experimental, samples selected were primigravida women with simple random technique. As it was a pilot project 30 samples 15 in study group & 15 in control group were included. Study was conducted in selected urban health centre in Pune city. Results • In knowledge score wise distribution of cases in experiment group and control group shows that they are having poor knowledge. • In practice score wise distribution of cases in experiment group and control group shows 70% with poor practices, 20% with average practices & 10% with good practices. • Religion, education, occupation, type of family wise distribution of cases in experiment and control group does not show any significant difference. • In Sources of information wise distribution of cases in experiment & control group majority of cases shows family as their source of information. Newspaper & TV also has influence as source of information in experiment & control group. • On comparison of pre and post test knowledge score in experiment group shows significant difference in post test knowledge scores than pre test knowledge scores. • On comparison of pre and post test practice score in experiment group shows significant difference in post test practice scores than pre test practice scores and is statistically significant. • In comparison of effectiveness in knowledge & practice scores between pre and post test in experiment group shows statistically significant increase in knowledge & practice scores. • In comparison of effectiveness in knowledge and practice scores between pre and post test in experiment group were same & shows no statistically significant increase in knowledge and practice scores. Conclusion: Thus it is well understood that teaching on various elements of birth preparedness caused increase in knowledge as well as practice scores. It definitely projects a step towards preventive behavior of getting prepared and even identifying warning signs at earlier stage.