Mother's knowledge of pain relief in labour.

Abstract

The aim of this small scale exploratory study was to explore mother's knowledge of pain relief during labour. The ability of the mothers to make an informed choice regarding their choice of pain relief in labour was also studied. This study was conducted in the Ante-Natal Ward of St. Luke's Hospital, after the relevant permissions were obtained. A sample of 25 mothers took part in the study. Data was collected through questionnaires which contained closed-ended questions and the data was analyzed using quantitative analysis. Results from this study showed that mothers had some knowledge regarding pain relief in labour, but seemed to concentrate more on mentioning pharmacological methods rather than non-pharmacological methods of pain relief. The mothers also seemed satisfied with the knowledge about pain relief that was given to them, which was mainly achieved from parent education classes as well as from relatives and friends. Mothers who had attended up to tertiary education schooling seemed more inclined to get additional information from books than were mothers who had attended up to secondary education. Nearly all the mothers had some knowledge of the existence of side effects with the pharmacological methods; however, it was also found that only half of the mothers felt confident enough to make an informed choice regarding their pain relief in labour. No significant difference was found in knowledge of pain relief from mothers who were primiparous, and mothers who were multiparous. The multiparous mothers were also 111 however, in most cases satisfied with the pain relief methods that they had tried in their previous labour/s. As a result of this study, limitations and recommendations for practice were noted and suggestions for further research into the field were given, as it was found that more information is required from the health professionals closest to the mothers, which in this case would be the midwives. Due to this being a small-scale study, no conclusions can be drawn.