Attitude and Practice of Birth Attendants Regarding the Presence of Male Partner at Delivery in Nigeria

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing request for the male partners’presence at delivery in developing countries, the view and practiceof birth attendants remained poorly understood.This study aimed toevaluate the perception, attitude and practice of birth attendantsconcerning the requests in Nigeria.METHODS: A prospective, cross-sectional survey involvingconsenting birth attendants was conducted in six public and sixprivate health facilities in North Central Nigeria. Statisticalanalysis was done with SPSS-version 20.0; p-value <0.05 wasconsidered statistically significant.RESULTS: Among 564 participants (24.8% male, 75.2% female),465(82.4%) support the presence of male partners at delivery,409(72.5%) desire to be with their partner at delivery, 434(77.0%)had previous request for male partner’s presence at delivery while225(51.8%) declined it due to perception that men will disturb.Among the male partners allowed at delivery, 92(44.0%) did notdisturb the birth attendant while 5(2.4%) ended in litigation.Among birth attendants who allowed men at delivery in the past,160(76.6%) will allow men in the future. There was no statisticalsignificance regarding the age, gender, cadre or year of service ofbirth attendants and attitude to a protocol change to allow men atdelivery. Birth attendants who support the presence of men atdelivery showed positive attitude (OR33.178, 95%CI6.996-157.358;p<0.001) while those who opined that men would disturb at deliveryhad a negative attitude (OR0.306, 95%CI0.124-0.755); p0.010) topossible protocol change.CONCLUSION: Despite perceived negative effects of allowingmale partners at delivery, many birth attendants are willing toallow them if necessary structural modifications are instituted.