ATTITUDE OF MOTHERS ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINICS AT GENERAL HOSPITALS IN ANAMBRA STATE TOWARDS CESAREAN DELIVERY
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to find out the attitude towards cesarean delivery among mothers attending antenatal care at the general hospitals in Anambra State. Seven specific objectives with seven corresponding research questions and four null-hypotheses were postulated to guide the study. The cross-sectional survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was 3,256 mothers while the sample for the study consisted of 326 mothers. Random sampling technique of balloting without replacement and systematic random sampling technique were used to draw the sample for the study. A two-sectioned researcher designed questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The instrument was validated by five experts from the department of Health and Physical Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Mean was used to analyze the data obtained while ANOVA was used in testing all the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The results of the study showed that the overall attitude of mothers towards accepting cesarean delivery (2.20) and towards the medical staff that executes cesarean delivery (2.42) were negative while their attitude towards those who undergo cesarean delivery were positive (2.50). The independent variables (age, parity, educational attainment and previous mode of delivery) had no significant influence at .05 level of significance on attitude of mothers towards C-delivery. Following from the findings, discussion and conclusion of the study, four recommendations were made among which is that community health education about the benefits of cesarean delivery when indicated at primary care level is needed for the women’s and community’s understanding of the necessity of cesarean delivery. This will go a long way to reduce the number of women declining cesarean delivery and the morbidities and mortalities associated with such an action and improve the pregnancy outcome.