Perception, Knowledge and Attitude of Developing Country Pregnant Mothers about Anesthesia for Cesarean Section

Abstract

Knowledge about a type of Anesthesia to be used for cesarean section is not well investigated in developing countries. Knowing types and complications of anesthesia for Caesarean section will help mothers to have less stress and decide on their anesthetic choice. This study aimed to assess perception, knowledge and attitude of pregnant mothers towards Anesthesia for Cesarean section. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess knowledge and attitude of pregnant mothers attending antenatal care at Jimma University specialized hospital. Convenience sampling method was used to select participants from May 5 up to June 5, 2014. Chi-square and p-values were also calculated, and P-value < 0.05 was considered as significant association. 147 (69.7%) women in our survey were found totally unaware about various options of anesthesia technique. Fear of seeing things (60.3%) and previous experiences (7.94) were the main reasons for choosing general anesthesia in our population. The women who wanted to see their baby at birth, which accounts 12.6% and wants to be awakened during operation, which accounted to 6.54%, considered regional anesthesia as a safer technique. Most of the studied population is unaware of the existence of different anesthesia technique. The major source information about anesthesia was from experience, and most of the patient has no knowledge about importance of pre-operative evaluation.

Knowledge and attitude towards anesthesia for cesarean section and its associated factors among pregnant women attending Antenatal care

“…Accordingly, pregnant women who have had previous operation or exposure to anesthesia were 5 times more likely to have good knowledge about anesthesia for CS as compared to pregnant women who hadn't any previous operation. This nding is consistent with studies conducted in Jimma University specialized Hospital Ethiopia (17), India (20), Pakistan (13,23) Turkey (24), and Nepal (25) which showed that patient with previous exposure of anesthesia or surgery had good knowledge of anesthesia techniques as compared to those without previous exposure. This might be due to that pregnant women who have had previous operation or exposure to anesthesia may spend more effort to get accurate information about it which improves their knowledge level towards anesthesia.…”

“…It was higher than studies conducted among pregnant women on knowledge and attitudes towards anesthesia for CS in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital Ethiopia (32%) (11), Jimma University Specialized Hospital (31.3%) (17), India (30.0%) (21), and Khamis Mushait (37.5%) (14). The reason for high prevalence of knowledge in this study as compared with Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital might be due to majority (92.7%) of the study participants in this study were from urban areas while only 42.5% of participants from Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital were from urban set up.…”

“…The possible reason for the difference in the proportion of knowledge about anesthesia for CS in this study compared with that of India is that majority of the study participants in India were housewife (82.5%). There are also evidence that revealed participants who were housewife were less knowledgeable about anesthesia technique as compared to the civil servant or working women (13,17). However, this nding was lower than studies conducted in India (89.5%) (12), Pakistan (82.4%)(13), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria (78%) (15), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital-Nigeria (65.5%) (16), and Ghana (62.4%) (6).…”

“…Single population proportion formula was used to estimate the minimum sample size. It was estimated using a 31.3% proportion of knowledge towards anesthesia of CS from a previous study in Jimma, Ethiopia (17), 95% con dence level (α=5%), 5% margin of error, and a non-response rate of 10%.…”

“…Attitude: A pregnant woman is classi ed as having positive attitude if her response was higher than the median value. Knowledge: Pregnant women were considered knowledgeable if they correctly responded more than 60% of the knowledge related question, otherwise categorized as having poor knowledge (17).…”