Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Poor maternal health, which leads to maternal death and severe acute maternal morbidity, is still a major issue, particularly in Sub- Saharan Africa, where health care is in short supply. 1 In 2015, an estimated 303,000 women and adolescent girls died as a result of pregnancy and delivery difculties, while 2.6 million newborns died in the same year. Almost all maternal (99%) and child (98%) deaths occurred in low- and middle-income nations. 2 These maternal deaths may have been avoided if pregnant women or adolescent girls had access to high-quality antenatal care (ANC), sufcient prenatal preparation, and were prepared for any type of difculty before giving birth. In Nigeria, the maternal death rate has decreased, from 1100 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 840 per 100,000 live births in 2008, then to 560 per 100,000 live births in 2013. 3 The rate of decline, however, is insufcient to meet the third Sustainable Development Goal, 4 which aims to reduce global maternal death to less than 70 per 100 000 births, with no nation having a maternal mortality rate greater than twice the global average. 3 Birth preparedness and complication readiness are one of the keys to a safe motherhood strategy to promote the timely use of skilled maternal and neonatal care during childbirth by making a birth plan and promoting active preparation and decision-making for the delivery of pregnant women and their families. 5 Several donor agencies and the Federal Government of Nigeria have done a lot and adopted various policies to improve safe motherhood but all these eforts have not translated to any meaningful reduction in maternal mortality. 6 More so focused antenatal care aimed at providing individual counselling on birth preparedness and complication readiness including danger signs of obstetric complications during the antenatal visits has been adopted to improve the timely utilization of the services of skilled providers by mothers and subsequent reduction in maternal mortality. 7 Despite all these eforts to reduce maternal mortality, it has continued to be high. A study at Enugu State University teaching hospital by Ezeugwu, Agu, Nwoke and Ezeugwu (2014) reported an unacceptably high maternal mortality rate MMR of 645 per 100,000 live births and identifed eclampsia and haemorrhage as the two most common causes of maternal death. 8 These two most common causes of maternal death are preventable complications of pregnancy and delivery, which could have been averted if the signs were recognized on time and prompt medical care given to the pregnant woman. The reasons for the persistently high maternal mortality in Enugu, as in most parts of Nigeria are not quite clear and it has not been established if expectant mothers in urban and rural communities in Enugu State are well informed about BPCR. The study was aimed at assessing the knowledge of birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria. Material and methods This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The population for the study comprised 17,565 female adults. 9 The target population was all the pregnant women receiving antenatal care in public and private healthcare facilities in Enugu. The sample size of 422 was calculated using the Creative Research System (2012). This sample size was split equally between the public and private facilities providing antenatal care giving 211 respondents in each sector of the healthcare delivery. All pregnant women attending both public and private healthcare Nurse Care Open Acces J. 2022;8(1):4‒8. 4 ©2022 Ndubuisi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Knowledge of birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria Volume 8 Issue 1 - 2022 Ifeoma F Ndubuisi, Ijeoma O Okoronkwo, Hope 1, Maduakolam O Ijeoma,Ada C Nwaneri, Nwodoh Chijioke Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nigeria Correspondence: Maduakolam Ijeoma O, Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu, Nigeria, Tel 0806 163 7628, Email Received: May 06, 2022 | Published: June 24, 2022 Abstract Background: Avoidable maternal mortality remains a huge burden, especially in sub- Saharan Africa. Expectant mothers have faced life life-threatening complications that birth preparedness and complication readiness plan help to actively avoid. Objective: The study assessed knowledge of birth preparedness and complication readiness among women in selected health care facilities in Enugu State. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based method was adopted. Multiple stage sampling was used to select 422 pregnant women from 8 selected health care facilities for the study. A validated structured questionnaire developed by the researchers was used for data collection. Findings were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: Findings revealed that only 20.5% of the respondents had good knowledge of the components of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness(BPCR) Most of the respondents 87.6% lacked good knowledge of key danger signs of pregnancy, labour and postpartum, while the majority of the respondents 78.6%, 96.7% and 95.5% knew that vaginal bleeding is a key danger sign of pregnancy, labour and postpartum respectively. Age P=0.000, marital status P=0.001, level of education P=0.000 and occupation P=0.000 of the respondents had signifcant relationships with their knowledge of BPCR. Conclusion: There was poor knowledge of BPCR among the studied population. There is a need for nurses and midwives to intensify health education on the components of BPCR, and key danger signs of pregnancy, labour and post-partum during an antenatal visit. Keywords: knowledge, birth preparedness, complication readiness, enugu, pregnant women Nursing and Care Open Access Journal Research Article Open Access