Perception and utilization of epidural analgesia among antenatal attendees in a Nigerian tertiary health institution

Abstract

Introduction: Pain in labor contributes significantly to many morbidities and mortalities during labor and childbirth. Labor is a naturally painful experience, and delivery process varies among women. Epidural analgesia has been developed to alleviate labor pains, which helps to have a positive health outcome for both mother and child. This necessitates the need to examine the perception and utilization of epidural analgesia among pregnant women receiving skilled antenatal care.

Methods: A cross-sectional design was used with a simple random sampling technique to select 120 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in University College Hospital Ibadan. A validated questionnaire (r= 0.72) was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential
statistics. Ethical approval was obtained before the commencement of data collection.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 31.1 years. The pregnant women had a poor perception of epidural analgesia (mean=41.6) and 47.5% had a good perception. Pregnant women demonstrated low utilization (mean 17.7) and 48.3% of the respondents had high utilization of epidural analgesia. Major factors influencing their utilization of epidural analgesia include: labor pain is natural and does not need any medical intervention (77%), fear of additional cost during delivery (78%), lack of adequate knowledge about epidural analgesia (71%), husband unwillingness to support (65%), and pain from the procedure or needle (62%).

Conclusion: In the light of the benefits of epidural analgesia during labor, it is important that midwives delivering health talks in antenatal clinic should improve on their effort to adequately educate pregnant women on the usage of epidural analgesia and its effect to relief labor pain.