Esan Deborah Tolulope, Muhammad Fatimah, Tonye Ihueze Amarachi, Bukola Bello Cecelia, Ogunkorode Agatha
Department of Nursing Science, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Afe Babalola University Multisystem Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Enferm Clin (Engl Ed). 2022 Sep-Oct;32(5):326-333. doi: 10.1016/j.enfcle.2022.01.004.
Pain is termed as a subjective phenomenon, however almost all women acknowledge that labor pain is the most severe form of pain a woman experiences in her lifetime. Obstetric analgesia is underutilized in developing countries due to cultural myths and taboos. Hence, the present study aims to identify Nigerian women's knowledge of labor analgesia and to explore what myths and factors hinder with the use of analgesia in labor.
A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted in this study. The population of the study predominantly consisted of pregnant women from the «Yoruba ethnic group». An adapted semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from participants from selected Health Care Centers in Ekiti state, Nigeria. The collected data was analyzed using a descriptive and inferential statistics and was represented in form of tables and charts with level of significance set at p ≤ 0.05.
A total of 236 respondents were included in the study (n = 236). Findings from this study revealed that, the participants showed very poor knowledge on labor pain management strategies, with only 26.3% being aware of pain management strategies used in relieving labor pain. An elevated number of the participants (56.8%) believed that labor pain should not be relieved with the use of drugs, strongly agreeing that analgesia was «a sign ofweakness» (57.2%). Also, more than half (51.7%) of participants had fears that pain relief administered during labor can cause harm to the unborn baby. Belief that experiencing labor pain completes one's motherhood (49.6%), Religion (50.4%) and Culture (54.5%), were reported as factors influencing the uptake/acceptance of labor analgesia among participants. Furthermore statistical significant association was found between educational level of participants and knowledge of labor analgesia among participants (p value = 0.000; p ≤ 0.05).
Cultural myths on the use of analgesia exist among participants. It is suggested that women-centered education should be targeted toward eliminating these myths and increasing awareness about labor analgesia.
疼痛被视为一种主观现象，然而几乎所有女性都承认分娩疼痛是女性一生中经历的最剧烈的疼痛形式。由于文化神话和禁忌，产科镇痛在发展中国家未得到充分利用。因此，本研究旨在确定尼日利亚女性对分娩镇痛的了解，并探讨哪些神话和因素阻碍了分娩镇痛的使用。
本研究采用定量描述性横断面设计。研究人群主要由来自“约鲁巴族”的孕妇组成。采用一份经过改编的半结构化问卷，从尼日利亚埃基蒂州选定的医疗中心的参与者那里获取数据。使用描述性和推断性统计分析收集到的数据，并以表格和图表的形式呈现，显著性水平设定为p≤0.05。
本研究共纳入236名受访者（n = 236）。该研究的结果显示，参与者对分娩疼痛管理策略的了解非常匮乏，只有26.3%的人知晓用于缓解分娩疼痛的疼痛管理策略。相当多的参与者（56.8%）认为分娩疼痛不应使用药物缓解，强烈认同镇痛是“软弱的表现”（57.2%）。此外，超过一半（51.7%）的参与者担心分娩时进行的疼痛缓解会对未出生的婴儿造成伤害。认为经历分娩疼痛才能完成母亲身份（49.6%）、宗教（50.4%）和文化（54.5%）被报告为影响参与者接受/采用分娩镇痛的因素。此外，在参与者的教育水平和对分娩镇痛的了解之间发现了统计学上的显著关联（p值 = 0.000；p≤0.05）。
参与者中存在关于使用镇痛的文化神话。建议以女性为中心开展教育，以消除这些神话并提高对分娩镇痛的认识。
