AWARENESS OF WOMEN REGARDING ANALGESIA DURING LABOUR

Authors

  • Atiya Barakzai
  • Gulfareen Haider
  • Farhana Yousuf
  • Ambreen Haider
  • Nasiruddin Muhammad

Abstract

Background: Delivery pain is one of the most severe pains that women experience during their life soa change can affect all dimensions of pregnant women and her family life. Aim of this study was toassess the women’s knowledge of pain relief during labour, and their beliefs, fears, and misconceptionsregarding epidural analgesia. Methods: It was descriptive study conducted in Obstetric andGynaecology OPD of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad from September2007 to January 2008. Women were selected randomly. All pregnant females who had deliveredpreviously were interviewed. Primigravida were excluded from study. Information was collected onself-made questionnaire after an informed consent. Information was collected on computer softwareprogramme of SPSS 11.frequencies and percentages were calculated to express the results. Results:Total 131 women were included in this study. Out of these 65, (49.6%) had no education while 41(31.2%) had primary education. Majority of women (82, 62.5%) had knowledge about injections whilefew (12, 9.1%) women had knowledge about epidural analgesia. Seventy-nine (60.3%) had chosen theinjections as preferred method during next labour. Regarding attitude towards labour pains, 61 (46.5%)feels that labour pains as severe pain. Regarding epidural analgesia 4 (3%) women thought that epiduralanalgesia will lead to weakness of limbs and 3 (2.2%) women thought that it will cause permanentbackache. Conclusion: There was poor general awareness of women about the role of epiduralanalgesia in labour leading to a low patient demand for such services. Most of the women had gainedknowledge regarding pain relief from past experience or from friends and relatives.Keywords: Labour pains, epidural analgesia, awareness

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Published

2010-03-01