AWARENESS OF WOMEN REGARDING ANALGESIA DURING LABOUR
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 to
assess the women's knowledge of pain relief during labour, and their beliefs, fears, and misconceptions
regarding epidural analgesia. Methods: It was descriptive study conducted in Obstetric and
Gynaecology OPD of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad from September
2007 to January 2008. Women were selected randomly. All pregnant females who had delivered
previously were interviewed. Primigravida were excluded from study. Information was collected on
self-made questionnaire after an informed consent. Information was collected on computer software
programme 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 while
few (12, 9.1%) women had knowledge about epidural analgesia. Seventy-nine (60.3%) had chosen the
injections 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 epidural
analgesia will lead to weakness of limbs and 3 (2.2%) women thought that it will cause permanent
backache. Conclusion: There was poor general awareness of women about the role of epidural
analgesia in labour leading to a low patient demand for such services. Most of the women had gained
knowledge regarding pain relief from past experience or from friends and relatives.
Keywords: Labour pains, epidural analgesia, awareness
References
Llewellyn Jones D. Child birth without pain. In: Llewellyn Jones
D ed. Every women: a gynecological guide for life. London:
Faber and Faber; 1971.p.177.
Caton D, Frolich MA, Euliano TY. Anaesthesia for childbirth:
controversy and change. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002; 186(5 suppl
Nature):S25-30.
Caton D. Obstetric anaesthesia: the first ten years.
Anaesthesiology 1970;33(1):102-9.
Lowe Nk. The nature of labour pain. Am J Obstet Gynecol
;186(5 Suppl Nature):S16-24.
Norr KL, Block CR, Charles A, Meyering S, Meyers E.
Explaining pain and enjoyment in childbirth. J Health Soc Behav
;18(3):260-75.
Burstein R, Buckland R, Pickett JA. A Survey of epidural
analgesia for labour in United Kingdom. Anaesthesia
;54:634-40.
Hawkins JL, Gibbs CP, Orleans ML. Obstetric anaesthesia work
force survey, 1981 versus 1991.Anesthesiology 1997;87:135-43.
Vanderdriesen NM, Lim W, Peach MJ. Obstetricians' knowledge
and attitudes towards epidural analgesia in labour. Anaesth
Intensive care 1998;26:463-7.
Vanderdriesen NM, Lim W, Peach MJ. Labour ward midwifery
staff epidural knowledge and practice. Anaesth Intensive care
;26:411-9.
Peach MJ, Gurrin LC. A Survey of parturients using epidural
analgesia during labour: considerations relevant to antenatal
educators. Aust NZ J Obstet Gynecol 1999;39:21-5.
Cascio M, Kabazie J, Ramanathan S. Consumer education and
patient attitude towards Labour analgesia. Anesth Analg
;84:S385.
Stamer UM, Messerschmidt A, Wulf H. Practice of epidural
analgesia for labour pain: a Germany survey. Eur J Anesthesiol
;16:308-14.
Olayemi O, Aimakhu CO, Udoh ES. Attitudes of patients to
obstetric analgesia at the University College Hospital, Ibandan,
Nigeria. J Obstet Gynecol 2003;23(1):38-40.
Stewart A, Sodhi V, Harper N, Yentis SM. Assessment of the
effect upon maternal knowledge of an information leaflet about
pain relief in labour. Anesthesia 2003;58:1015-9.
Swan HD, Borshoff DC. Informed consent-recall of risk
information following epidural analgesia in labour. Anaesth
Intensive Care 1994;22(2):139-41.
Biswas G, Hariharan V. A Survey of antenatal women on their
knowledge of pain relief methods in labour. Bull Royal Coll
Anaesth 2002;11:530-1.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
