Knowledge and Practice of Safe Delivery among Community Health Practitioners in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Nigeria

Abstract

Community health practitioners play a vital role in providing primary healthcare services, including antenatal/postnatal care and delivery. The research aim to identify safe normal delivery knowledge and practice among healthcare workers in primary healthcare clinics that plays significant role in the quality of care provided to pregnant women in their respective communities. Methods: A descriptive study design and a cluster sampling technique with the aid of questionnaires was used to select 210 community health practitioners from, Bayelsa Central Senatorial district. Results: From this study shows that 51.43% of respondents were within 25-34 years age bracket, 46.19% were married, 72.38% of respondents were CHEW’s, 53.81% were government employed and 92.38% were Christians while 1.90% and 5.71% were Islam and African traditional religion. An average knowledge of 94.76% community health practitioners on safe delivery was identified with a practice rate of 90.95% as well as 75.24% that has taken delivery successfully. Conclusion: Community health workers are known to be skilled birth attendants as well as positioned geographically and socially to deliver some aspects of MNH care. Hence we recommend that there should be an increased training and retraining of community health practitioners across Bayelsa state as this will help to protect life of women and their unborn /newborn babies.