Midwives' Attitudes to Painless Delivery: An Observational Study

Parturient health is a priority worldwide. In this regard, the promotion of natural childbirth has always been considered by health policy makers. However, the most important cause of parturient tendency to caesarean section is fear of labour pain and lack of information about surgery complications, leading to inappropriate rate of caesarean. Midwives, attending in prenatal visits and labour, may have a key role in encouraging pregnant patients through labour analgesia. In this study we evaluate midwives’ attitude through necessity of labour analgesia and their understanding of neuraxial analgesia for labour pain.

One hundred and five midwives working educational hospitals, participated in this observational study. All participants were asked to fill questionnaires. Each questionnaire consists of 15 questions, each answer had 1 to 3 points. Total score of 15 to 25 was considered as poor, score 26 to 35 as intermediate and 35 to 45 as good attitude.

Forty-nine percent of midwives had experience with labour analgesia. Forty-one percent participated in relevant educational workshops. About 40% presumed these techniques would result in immobility, while 66% assumed it will lengthen the procedure. 63% believed labour analgesia will increase mother’s satisfaction. Overall, 73% of them agreed with regional analgesia. In regards to attitude score, 22% were scored poor, 65% intermediate and 13% good.

Midwives’ attitude was estimated low. Participating in workshops improved their attitude, yet the difference was not significant. Attitude of those who participated in labour analgesia was significantly better than others.