Assessment of obstetric complications amongst women in Osisioma Ngwa L.G.A. Abia State who do not seek orthodox obstetric care

Abstract

Background: There are myriads of obstetric complications. However, this work focused on four major life-threatening ones which are also the most associated with maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. These include hemorrhage, complications of obstructed labor (for example; uterine rupture), hypertensive disorders in pregnancy and puerperal sepsis.

Methodology: An analytical cross-sectional research was conducted among 384 women of child-bearing age, living in Osisioma Ngwa LGA of Abia State, Nigeria to investigate the association between exposure to risk factor (in this case, non-utilization of orthodox obstetric care) and outcome (obstetric complication). A simple random sampling method was adopted for use in this study to select study participants. Self-administered questionnaires were used to assess the obstetric complications amongst women in Osisioma-Ngwa LGA, Abia state who do not seek orthodox obstetric care. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 21.

Results: The frequency of occurrence of obstetric complications is higher with the patronage of non-orthodox obstetric care facilities; 13.28% from non-orthodox centers against 10.68% from hospitals.

There is high (46.40%) patronage of non-orthodox ANC services. The commonest complications from the non-orthodox centers during pregnancy were vaginal bleeding (hemorrhage) 18.23%, followed by hypertension 5.73%. The most frequent complication in labour were bleeding per vaginam 31.25%, followed by failure to progress in labor 13.80%, fever (puerperal sepsis) 51(13.28%), and retained placenta 2(0.52%). Majority (75.80%) of the women prefer hospitals to manage their pregnancies. However, in the absence of doctors, they resort to the maternity homes (78.10%) and TBAs (21.60%). Thus, there is a high propensity to seeking non-orthodox obstetric care among the study population.

Conclusion: The findings in this study underscore the need for extensive enlightenment of women on the need to solely patronize the orthodox obstetric care services. This will grossly address the rising level of obstetric complications and poor referral attitude from the TBAs.

Keywords: obstetric complication, Orthodox, Antenatal care (ANC)