A Study of the Awareness and Acceptabilty of Labour Epidural Analgesia amongst Antenatal Clinic Attendees in One Tertiary Hospital

Background: The benefits of Pain relief to parturients in labour cannot be over-emphasized. However, in low middle income countries accessibility, availability and affordability these services are not optimum. This has made it near impossible for women in labour to benefit from epidural analgesia.

Aim: This study was aimed to assess the knowledge of availability and level of acceptance of labour analgesia amongst antenatal clinic attendees at the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH).

Methods: The present observational study was conducted after informed consent was given by antenatal clinic attendees. Data was collected using a pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS Version 25.

Results: Response from 200 women with mean ± SD age and gestational age of 31.49 ± 4.89 years and 34.25 ± 4.75 weeks respectively. The modal Parity was 1. 56; while 106/200 (53%) were aware of pain relief in labour, 94/200 (47%) had no knowledge of pain relief in labour. Twenty eight (28/106) constituting 26.42% had knowledge of the pharmacological methods while 78 (73.59%) had non-specific ideas about pain relief in labour. Twenty six (26/28) (92.86%) of the respondents will accept epidural analgesia in labour.

Conclusion: Knowledge of availability and acceptance of labour analgesia was poor. Lack of information is a major contributor for non-acceptance of labour analgesia. The inclusion and dissemination of information about labour analgesia by anaesthetists and obstetricians during antenatal classes would increase the knowledge about its availability and wide acceptance to these parturients.