Abstract:
Background: Most women have uneventful pregnancies and childbirth, sudden and
unpredictable complications may happen at any time to any woman. Birth preparedness and
complication readiness is needed to handle the problems. Globally, 830 women die every day from
preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Ethiopia is one of developing country with 412
maternal mortality rate. However different intervention was made still mothers preparation for birth is
low while the husbands are decision makers and control resources.
Objectives: To assess husbands’ knowledge of obstetric danger signs, level of birth preparedness and
complication readiness and associated factors in Wara Jarso, Ethiopia, 2019
Methods: Community based cross sectional study was conducted in Wara Jarso from April 8
to 28 2019. Using simple random sampling 593 study participants were interviewed The
collected data were coded, cleaned and entered to Epidata version 3.1, exported to SPSS 23.
Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify association of independent
variables with husbands’ level of birth preparedness and complication readiness at p<0.05,
95%CI. The results were presented by descriptive, tables and diagrams.
Result: The data were collected from 593 participants, and 574 were completed the interview
giving the response rate of 96.8%. The mean age of respondents was 36.5±7.8 years. Knowledge
of obstetric danger signs of the respondents was 32.06% while level of birth preparedness and
complication readiness was 22.30%. Merchant husbands (AOR = 2.272 (95%CI 1.153, 4.478),
p=.018), living in urban (AOR = 5.550 (95%CI 2.211, 13.933), p=.001) escorting their wives
to health institution (AOR = 2.217(95%CI 1.095, 4.487), p=.027) accept buying material and
clothes for baby before delivery (AOR = 3.599 (95%CI 1.995, 6.490), p=.001), knowledgeable
about obstetric danger sign (AOR = 4.957 (95%CI 2.726, 9.016), p=.001) were variables
associated with husbands’ birth preparedness and complication readiness.
Conclusion and recommendation: The husbands’ knowledge of obstetric dangers signs were low and
their level of preparation for delivery and complication was also low. Occupation, residence, escort
wife, accepting buying materials and knowledge were variables that were associated with preparation.
Therefore, district health office, policy makers and planners and HEW have to work on awareness
creation about obstetric danger signs among husbands and how to increase level of preparation among
husbands
