Proximate Predictors of Vaginal Delivery in Primigravid women at a Tertiary Health Facility in Ibadan, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

Successful vaginal delivery (VD) is the desire of every parturient. This is however not always so especially for primigravid women. Predictive factors can help the counselling process and allay the anxiety that this group of parturients experience.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence and predictors of vaginal delivery among primigravid women at a tertiary health facility.

METHODS

This was a 6-month cross-sectional study of 200 primigravid women that were planned for vaginal delivery. Information was obtained using structured proforma. Bivariate and multivariable analysis was used to identify the proximate predictors of VD.

RESULTS

The prevalence of vaginal delivery was 50.0%. Labour onset was spontaneous in 78.0%; 10.0% had engaged fetal head prior to labour onset while labour was augmented in 18.0% of the parturients. Labour lasted ≤12 hours in majority (67.5%) with about half (49.5%) having successful vaginal delivery. Factors predicting successful vaginal delivery were spontaneous labour onset (OR=3.555, 95% CI=1.626-7.774), booked pregnancy (OR=3.008, 95%CI=1.361-6.647), and early fetal head engagement (OR=6.484, 95% CI=1.686-24.943).

CONCLUSION

The identified predictive factors of vaginal delivery in this study will aid counselling of primigravid women regarding the likelihood of successful vaginal delivery especially in the absence of other obstetric complications.