Awareness And Acceptance of Epidural Labor Analgesia Amongst Parturients in Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina

Abstract

Background: Labour analgesia is a common practice worldwide, but is not very popular in Nigeria. Epidural analgesia in labour, the gold standard for pain relief, was recently commenced in our hospital. It is therefore important to assess how much pregnant women know about it and the acceptability of the procedure in our environment. Objective: The study was aimed at assessing the awareness and acceptance of epidural labour analgesia amongst parturients attending the ante-natal clinic in Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out among pregnant women attending antennal care in Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina. Ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee. Using a structured questionnaire, consenting pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic were interviewed. Relevant information such as socio-demographic characteristic, awareness of epidural labour analgesia and its acceptability were obtained. Data was analysed using SPSS 20.0. The association between sociodemographic factors andawareness and acceptance of epidural labour analgesia and the reasons for non-acceptance of epidural analgesia in labour were determined. P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: A total of 145 consenting pregnant women were interviewed but one of the respondent did not return her questionnaire. The mean age was 28.27 ± 4 years. Majority of the respondents were Hausa, Muslims and housewives, with tertiary level as the highest level of education attended. There was an overall poor knowledge of epidural labour analgesia, as only 25.0% of the respondents had knowledge of epidural labour analgesia. About 2/3 of the respondents (63.9%) were willing to accept epidural labour analgesia in labour. Educational attainment, ethnicity and awareness of methods of obstetric analgesia were significantly associated with the desire for obstetric analgesia. Conclusion: The awareness of epidural analgesia in labour among pregnant women in our environment is low, though more women are willing to accept it.