A survey of preference of parturients in labour

Abstract

Background: There is a growing concern among parturient women to have labour management modified to accommodate some of their preferences based on their previous experience of information obtained from others.

Objectives: As service care providers, we sought to identify women's attitude to some important aspects of childbirth, namely: the preferred place or environment of delivery; reasons for dislike of modern labour management; as well as attitudes (cognitive, affect and behaviour) to operative delivery, particularly caesarean deliv ery.

Methods: A survey of women's attitude to some important aspects of childbirth was carried out with the use of questionnaires among women attending antenatal clinic at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Results:The study showed a great desire by women to have someone they already know in labour (spouses 58.80%; mother/mother figure 88.68%). Forty percent of those who prefer to deliver outside hospital settings would do so due to unfriendly attitudes of doctors and midwives.

Conclusion:There is the need to appropriately train doctors and midwives who attend to women in labour as regards the anxieties and needs of the women in labour.