pregnancy

Perception and Experience of Pregnant Women Toward Midwife-Led Perinatal Care in Abua-Odual Health Facilities, Rivers State, Nigeria (Published)

Globally, the obstetrician-led and the midwife care are the two skilled science-based maternity care models available for pregnant women. Midwife-led care is maternal and children healthcare approach in which the midwife takes the lead role in planning, organizing, and providing perinatal care to pregnant women. This study examined pregnant women’s perception and experience toward midwife-led perinated care in health facilities in Abua-Odual, Rivers State, Nigeria. This study adopted the interpretive phenomenology design. The study was conducted at Five (5) health facilities in Abua-Odual. A convenience sample of 30 percent women completed the study. In-depth interview were done using a non-structured interview guide. Collected data were analyzed using the Hsieh and Shannon s 5-step systematic content analysis technique. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the University of Port Harcourt Institutional Review Board. The six themes that emerged under perception were: affordability of midwifery services, personalized midwife-client relationship, empowerment of women to make decision, improved continuum of care, improved women-centered care, and improved satisfaction of care. The respondents reported positive experiences and showed a willingness to receive midwifery-led perinatal care. The study revealed that women were satisfied with the financial cost of midwifery services, appreciated the midwifes expertise in providing maternity care, acknowledge the personalized relationship with the midwife, and shared that they were empowered to make decision about their health and wellbeing. This study recommends more research in this subject matter to enhance the delivery of women-friendly maternity care.

Keywords: Experiences, Perception, midwife-led care, phenomenology, pregnancy

Assessment of Vital Signs During the Stages of Labour (Published)

Vital signs are an objective measurement for the essential physiological functions of a living organism. The first set of clinical examinations is an evaluation of the vital signs of the patient. The basis of patient triage in an urgent care /prompt care or an emergency room is on their vital signs as it tells the physician the degree of derangement that is happening from the baseline. The degree of vital sign abnormalities may also predict the long-term patient health outcomes, return emergency room visits, and frequency of readmission to hospitals, and utilization of healthcare resources.During the research 12 non pregnant women and 36 pregnant women were used.  Questionnaire will be administered to the respondents and their responses formed the basic data for the study. The data will be analyzed using statistical package (SPSS version 25) and one way ANOVA, independent Sample t test and descriptive statisticsVital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate) are thought to undergo changes during and immediately after pregnancy. However, these physiological changes are not taken into account in the normal ranges, which themselves are not evidence-based, used in routine and acute care monitoring.  During the first stage of labor we found an average heart rate of 88 (10) beats per minuteAt the beginning of labor, temperature was 37.1 ^oC, Temperature increased slowly during labor and was 37.4 ^oC after 22 hours. However, in the normal labor group, temperature remained stable, while the abnormal labor group demonstrated a slow increase of temperature. Likewise, respiratory rate, blood pressure and pulse rate were all found to be within accepted range at first but gradually increases with time due.

Keywords: Abnormalities, Care, Patient., emergency, pregnancy

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Preventive Measures towards COVID-19 among Pregnant Women Attending Selected Primary Health Centre’s in Osogbo, Osun State (Published)

Background: COVID-19 is a new viral disease, and health researchers are currently evaluating its effects on pregnant women and their unborn children. There is dearth of research available to support the argument that pregnant women are at greater risk of COVID-19 disease.Methods: This study used an exploratory research design to examine the knowledge, attitude and practice of preventive measures towards COVID-19 among pregnant women in Osogbo, Osun state. 382 subjects were selected using a simple random technique. Self-developed questionnaire was the instrument used to collect data. The data collected were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and the results were presented using tables and percentages. Six null hypotheses were tested using chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. Results: Result of this study shows that nearly half of the respondents are within 18-25 (45.0%) years of age, 79(63.6%) are Muslims and 358(93.7%) are from the Yoruba tribe. This study also reveals that the respondents do have significant knowledge on the novel Coronavirus disease and a good attitude towards the prevention of COVID-19 as they practice frequent hand washing, sanitizer use and maintenance of social distancing. From the hypothesis tested, there is significant association between the education level of the respondents and their knowledge and attitude of preventive measures towards COVID-19 and no association between the age of the pregnant women and practice of preventive measures towards COVID-19. Conclusion: From the study, there seems to be a moderate level of awareness on the preventive measures towards COVID-19 among pregnant women in Osogbo but increase in the level of awareness and educational program can be done by the government and health workers in order have a very good attitude and awareness which will eventually improve the rate of adherence and compliance towards COVID-19 preventive measures.

 

Keywords: COVID-19, Knowledge, Preventive, attitude, pregnancy

Perception and Uptake of Focused Antenatal Care among Skilled Birth Attendants in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria (Published)

The replacement of the traditional antenatal care service model with focused antenatal care (FANC) has been viewed with mixed feelings by skilled birth attendants. This study therefore, assessed skill birth attendants’ perception and uptake of focused antenatal care at University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. A descriptive cross-sectional design that utilized convenient sampling to recruit 229 participants comprising of doctors, midwives and nurses from the various obstetrics departments participated in the study. Consent was obtained from the participants and was voluntary. A semi-structured questionnaire with a reliability of 0.72 was used for data collection. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and chi-square with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21. Results revealed that 82.4% of the respondents had good knowledge of FANC, while 69.2% of the respondents used FANC, only 2.4% had wrong perception of it usage. Moreover, 48.8% of the respondents had poor level of FANC uptake, 25.6% of respondents had fair uptake of FANC, while 25.6% have good level of its uptake. In addition, a significant association was found between professionals and uptake of focused antenatal care among the skilled birth attendants, while no significant association found between perception and uptake of focused antenatal care among the skilled birth attendants.It is therefore concluded that skilled birth attendants’ knowledge is high and they had positive and good perception to focused antenatal care however their uptake is poor.

Keywords: Antenatal Care, maternal mortality and skilled birth attendant., pregnancy

Social Support during Pregnancy among Pregnant Women in Ibadan, Nigeria (Published)

Pregnant women with low social support were reported to have symptoms of depression during and after pregnancy, and it has been established that this has implication on complication during child birth. This study aimed at examining the knowledge, attitude and perception of pregnant women about social support during pregnancy. A descriptive cross sectional research design was adopted and questionnaire with reliability 0.82 was used to gather data from 208 pregnant women selected through simple random sampling technique. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Findings revealed a good perception but negative attitude towards social support. There was a significant association between age and level of social support; marital status and level of social support; number of delivery and level of social support. Identified barriers to social support during pregnancy include poor family income, spouses’ nature of job and hospital policy.

Keywords: Antenatal Care, Childbirth., Maternal Health, Social Support, pregnancy