Introduction: Unhygienic cord-care practices are major public health concern because of the associated gross neonatal and infant morbidity and mortality. Various factors have been linked to these practices. This study aims to identify the determinants of cord care practices among mothers in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, South East, Nigeria. Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study involving women attending antenatal clinics and those who brought their babies to the immunization clinics of Federal Teaching Hospital, Mile Four Hospital and Maternal/Child Primary Health Care Center, all in Abakaliki. Results: Two hundred and seventy three mothers participated in the study. The majority of the participants aged 26 to 35 years (60.07%), had tertiary education (49.45%) and were business women (38.46%). Mothers who had secondary and tertiary education basically applied methylated spirit (p-value 0.0014) and chlorhexidine (p-value 0.0289) as a form cord care while those who had primary or no formal education cared for cord using hot water, Vaseline, close up tooth paste and local herbs. The mothers educational status, occupation and parity also determined the care given the umbilical cord after birth. Conclusion: Cord care practices are determined and influenced by several factors in Ebonyi State. Health education and awareness campaigns should be upheld and targeted among women of child bearing age found in women meetings, local markets and primary health care delivery centers especially in the rural setting.

Background: The application of invasive obstetric procedures has an end point of reducing the Caesarean section rate. The declining rate of use of these procedures is one of the reasons for increasing Caesarean section rates in our environment. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the practice of operative vaginal deliveries among obstetricians practicing in Nigeria and to evaluate the reasons for non-use of these procedures. Methodology: It was a questionnaire based study. The questionnaires were administered to practitioners of Obstetrics in the various centres in Nigeria. Data was collated and analyzed with Epi-Info statistical software version 7.0 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA), and conclusions were drawn by means of descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 1200 questionnaire were distributed but 1104 were returned and used for analysis. This gave a response rate of 92%. The age distribution of the respondents showed that the 20-30 year age group had the least number of respondents 22 (2%) while 41-50 age group had the highest number of respondents 486 (4%). The majority of the respondents were males 839 (76%). In terms of duration of practice, 449 (40.7%) of the respondents had more than 6 years duration of practice while 256 (23.2) had practiced for less than 3 years. Tertiary centres had highest number of respondents 71.8%. The distribution of the respondents according to the geopolitical zones in Nigeria are; SouthEast (57.6%), South-South (19.6%), South West (11.4%), NorthWest (4.9%), NorthEast (3.8%), North-Central (2.7%).

Background. Birth preparedness and complication readiness (BP/CR) concept is based on the premise that preparing for birth and being ready for complications reduce all three phases of delay to a bad obstetric outcome. Objectives. To determine the knowledge of BP/CR with its determinants and BP/CR index among pregnant women in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was done between 1st March 2019 and 31st July 2019 among 450 randomly selected antenatal attendees at Mile Four Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria. The data were obtained using a pretested interviewer-administered structured questionnaire adapted from the maternal and neonatal health program handbook of the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynaecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO). The data obtained were analyzed using percentages, chi-square, and odds ratios. The level of significance is at P value < 0.05. Results. The birth preparedness and complication readiness index was 41.9%. Only 44.9% and 36.9% of the study population had adequate knowledge of birth preparedness (BP) and complication readiness (CR), respectively. Upper social class, lower educational level, urban residence, and less than 30 years of age were associated with increased odds of respondents having adequate knowledge of BP and CR (P>0.05). However, only booking in the 1st or 2nd trimester was a significant determinant of the respondent’s adequate knowledge of BP (AOR=0.63, 95% CI 0.40-0.98) and CR (AOR=0.62, 95% CI 0.39-0.97). Identification of transport and saving of money was the commonest birth plan while the commonest danger sign known to the participants was bleeding. Conclusion. This study revealed that knowledge of BP/CR is suboptimal. The determinant of this knowledge is antenatal booking. It is recommended that women should have adequate antenatal care education to improve their knowledge of BP/CR. This will help to increase the low BP/CR index seen in our study.

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OBJECTIVE To investigate the validity and reliability of the Birth Satisfaction Scale – Revised (BSS-R) and to adapt it into the Igbo language.  MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was done among 500 women who delivered at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching hospital Abakaliki between 1st March 2019 and 31st August 2019. The BSS-R questionnaire was used for data collection in the postnatal ward. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The properties of the scale were tested by conducting reliability and validation analyses. The level of significance is a P-value of <0.05.  RESULTS The mean age of the women was 28.8±4.7 years; the majority (230, 46.0%) were between the age group of 30 – 40 years. Three-fifth of the study participant had formal education. The majority (460, 92.0%) were multipara and had delivered mostly (326, 65.2%) at Full Term. Three Component loading was identified in the Scale. Examination of the pattern matrix showed three components/themes: support by staff during labour (I felt well supported by staff during my labour and birth (r = 0.875); parturient confidence during labour (I felt out of control during my birth experience (r = 0.714) and distraught during labour (I was not distressed at all during labour (r = 0.821). Communality value (r2) mostly ranged between 0.507 and 0.801. The scale had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.62. This increased to 0.70 following the removal of “I was not distressed at all during labour” responses from the analysis.  CONCLUSION The Igbo version of BSS-R has good internal consistency. It is a valid and reliable scale to be employed in assessing maternal satisfaction among Igbo-speaking women in the study area and Nigeria in general.