Skillnaija All courses →

Your Birth Preparedness Plan

The capstone project for Pregnancy Preparedness: From Planning to the First Six Weeks — a free Civic & Life Skills course. Pass it and you earn a certificate anyone can verify.

Start the course free Download the project workbook

The project unlocks once you complete the lessons. The workbook is free to download now so you can see exactly what is expected.

What you will submit

One document (Google Doc shared with view access, or an uploaded Word or PDF file) with a headed section for each of the six parts. The budget may be a table in the document or a linked spreadsheet. Remove personal details before sharing.

What to do, step by step

  1. Write a birth preparedness plan for a real household (your own, a relative's, with their permission) or a realistic one you describe in a short paragraph: where they live, how far the nearest health facility is, who is in the home, and roughly what they earn. Do not include anyone's real full name, address, phone number or medical records; use first names or initials only. This is a planning exercise, not medical advice, and nothing in it replaces what the woman's own midwife, nurse or doctor tells her.
  2. Part 1. Antenatal schedule: state how many weeks pregnant the woman is now (or plan from the start), the facility chosen for antenatal care and why, and a dated schedule of the remaining antenatal contacts following the eight-contact pattern taught in the course. List the routine tests and protections she should expect to be offered and what each is for.
  3. Part 2. Danger-sign card: design a one-page card for the wall of the home listing the danger signs in pregnancy, after birth, and in a newborn, in words a relative could act on. Add who to call and where to go. You may write part of it in a Nigerian language used in the home.
  4. Part 3. Birth and emergency plan: name the facility for the birth and the backup facility if it is closed or cannot cope, the distance and travel time to each by day and by night, the vehicle and driver arranged with a second option, the birth companion, the adult who may give consent and make decisions if the woman cannot, and at least one person who has agreed to give blood. Say what happens if labour starts at 2 a.m. during heavy rain.
  5. Part 4. Budget and savings: estimate the costs from now to six weeks after birth, including antenatal registration and visits, tests, scans, drugs and supplements, transport, delivery (show both a normal delivery and a caesarean), items for the baby and the hospital bag, and an emergency reserve. Show how the money will be raised week by week or month by month, and say what health insurance or state scheme, if any, the household has checked.
  6. Part 5. The first six weeks: a plan for the mother's postnatal checks and rest, who does which household tasks, how breastfeeding will be supported, the baby's first immunisations and birth registration, the warning signs of postnatal depression and who she can talk to, and the family planning conversation the couple will have with a health worker.
  7. Part 6. Myths and conversations: choose two beliefs common in the household or community that could delay care (for example that a caesarean means failure, that swelling and headaches are normal, that a woman must wait for permission to go to hospital, or that herbal mixtures are safer than hospital drugs). For each, write how you would respond respectfully to the relative who holds it, in three or four sentences.

Files to work with

Project workbook (fill in, then submit)The whole brief, an evidence checklist, the grading rubric as a self-check and the link-sharing steps in one file. Opens in Word, Google Docs or WPS.Word · 7 KB

How it is graded

CriterionWeight
The antenatal schedule follows the eight-contact pattern, starts early, and explains the routine tests and protections accurately16%
The danger-sign card is accurate, complete for mother and newborn, and written so a relative could act on it immediately20%
The birth and emergency plan names a facility and a backup, realistic transport by night, a companion, a decision-maker and a blood donor22%
The budget covers normal and caesarean delivery plus an emergency reserve, and the savings plan is realistic for the household described18%
The six-week plan covers postnatal checks, rest, breastfeeding support, immunisation, registration, mental health and family planning14%
The responses to two myths are accurate, respectful, and direct the family towards skilled care rather than giving medical advice10%

You need 65% overall to pass. A human examiner also reviews this safety-critical project before any certificate is issued. A failed submission comes back with feedback and can be revised and resubmitted.

Before you submit: make your link public

If your work lives in Google Drive or Google Docs, open Share → General access and change “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link” (Viewer). Then paste the link into a private browser window: if it opens without sign-in, you are ready. A private link cannot be graded — it is the single most common reason a good project fails.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to finish Pregnancy Preparedness: From Planning to the First Six Weeks before submitting the project?

Yes. The submission screen opens once every lesson in Pregnancy Preparedness: From Planning to the First Six Weeks is marked complete. The lessons are where the methods, the Nigerian context and the worked examples the project depends on are taught.

How is the project graded?

An examiner scores each rubric criterion from 0 to 100 and weights them as shown on this page; you need 65% overall to pass. Because this is a safety-critical trade, a human examiner also reviews every submission before a certificate is issued.

Can I resubmit if I fail?

Yes. A failed project comes back with feedback; revise the weak parts and resubmit. A passed project is final — the certificate is issued and cannot be re-rolled.

What do I actually submit?

A write-up of what you did (under 5,000 characters) plus a public link to your work — a Google Drive folder, Google Doc, spreadsheet, GitHub repository or video. The link must open without sign-in; a private link cannot be graded. The free project workbook on this page walks you through all 7 steps.

Is the certificate real?

Yes. Passing this project issues a certificate with a unique verification code. Anyone — an employer, a client, a school — can open the verification page and see that the certificate is genuine and which project earned it.

More Civic & Life Skills projects

Ready to earn this certificate?

Pregnancy Preparedness: From Planning to the First Six Weeks is free and self-paced. Finish the lessons, complete this project, and the certificate is yours to share.

Start learning free