OBJECTIVES

Labor pain is the worst pain that almost every woman experiences during childbirth. Labor pain management plays a crucial role in promoting maternal-wellbeing, contributing enormously to maternal satisfaction with the childbirth experience and the high quality of services. Although there have been previous studies, they have primarily been conducted at referral or general hospitals located in urban settings. Thus, this study aimed to assess the utilization of labor pain analgesia and associated factors among obstetric care providers at all levels of health facilities in central Ethiopia.

METHODS

A multicenter institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed from 1 July to 30 September 2020. Simple random sampling using the lottery method was employed to select 399 obstetric care providers. The data were entered into Epi-data version 4.2 and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify the associated factors. The adjusted odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval and p value ⩽ 0.05 were used to identify associated factors.

RESULTS

The overall utilization of obstetric analgesia was 46% (95% confidence interval: 41.2%-50.8%). Being a Midwife (adjusted odds ratio: 2.10, 95% confidence interval: 1.27-3.47), having heard of the World Health Organization pain ladder (adjusted odds ratio: 2.95, 95% confidence interval: 1.73-5.01), having favorable attitude (adjusted odds ratio: 1.89, 95% confidence interval: 1.17-3.05), the expectation of obstetric care providers about labor pain (adjusted odds ratio: 3.26, 95% confidence interval: 1.27-8.36), having training on labor pain management (adjusted odds ratio: 2.51, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-6.07), and presence of chance for preference of obstetric analgesia for mothers in the facility (adjusted odds ratio = 2.30, 95% confidence interval: 1.33-3.98) were identified as factors significantly associated with the practice of obstetric analgesia among obstetric care providers.

CONCLUSION

The overall use of labor pain management methods among obstetric care providers is low. Professional category, provider attitude, labor pain severity expectations, and having training were found to be factors associated with the use of obstetric analgesia. Therefore, working on adapting and disseminating the harmonized guideline and protocols on labor pain management and provision of training for obstetric care providers on labor pain management techniques were recommended.