Awareness and Utilization of Obstetric Epidural Analgesia in Labour Among Pregnant Women in Wesley Guild Hospital Ilesha, Nigeria

Abstract

Epidural analgesia is widely used as an effective method of pain relief in labor. This study was therefore designed to investigate the awareness and level of utilization of obstetric analgesia in labour among pregnant women in Wesley Guild Hospital Ilesha, Nigeria. The descriptive study involving 110 pregnant women revealed that about half (41.8%) of the respondents had poor knowledge score, 37.3% had fair knowledge, while 20.9% had good knowledge score on obstetric epidural analgesia. Only 10.9% of the respondents had used epidural analgesia and 83.3% were satisfied with the use. There was a significant relationship between knowledge of respondents and the use of obstetric epidural analgesia. Moderate awareness, poor knowledge and low level of utilization of obstetric epidural analgesia were documented. There is a need for adequate awareness programs to enhance the knowledge of epidural analgesia and its utilization among pregnant women in order to reduce the excruciating labour pain.