Practice of Labour Pain Management Methods and Associated Factors among Skilled Attendants Working at General Hospitals in Tigray Region, North Ethiopia: Hospital Based Cross-Sectional Study Design

Abstract

Introduction: Labour pain is the most severe pain that a woman ever has to face. Pain relief in childbirth is subject to many social and cultural modifiers, which continue to change. Delivery of the infant into the arms of a conscious and pain-free mother is the most exciting and rewarding moment in maternal care services. Developed nation give emphasis on continuous labour support, But in developing country pain is neglected especially managing labor pain. In a country like Ethiopia with low institutional delivery managing labour pain can help as an incentive to enhance institutional delivery rate. Objective: The main purpose of this study is to assess practice of Labor pain management methods and associated factors among skilled attendants in all Tigray region general hospitals. Method: Institutional based cross sectional study design was carried out at all general hospitals in tigray regional state from October 01-30, 2016. All skilled attendants who were working at labour ward were included in the study; Data was collected by interviewer-administered, pretested and structured questionnaire. The data were entered by Epi- info version 7 then analyzed using SPSS for windows version 20. Descriptive analysis was done and logistic regression analyses were also used to see the association of dependent and independent variables. Finally odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were computed to determine the strength of association. Result: This study found out practice of labour pain management methods was 43.3%, which is only nonpharmacologic methods, practice of pharmacologic method was nil. Multivariate logistic regression showed professionals positive attitude for labour pain management {AOR=2.242, 95% CI=(1.242-4.048)} and High level qualification {(AOR= 2.876, 95% CI = (1.29-6.39)} were statistically associated with practice of labour pain management methods. Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed poor practice of labour pain management methods. Positive attitude and highest qualification found to be significant predictor of practice of labour pain management methods. So there is a need to build attitude and knowledge of skilled attendants towards good practice of labour pain management and further studies should be done from mother satisfaction point of view.