Labor Companionship in Labor and Delivery at Debremarkos Town Public Health Facilities: Magnitude and Associated Factors

Melaku Hunie Asratie; Hussien Mohammed Assfaw; Mulunesh Abuhay

doi:10.2147/IJWH.S327753

Labor Companionship in Labor and Delivery at Debremarkos Town Public Health Facilities: Magnitude and Associated Factors

Int J Womens Health. 2021 Sep 9:13:815-827. doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S327753. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Melaku Hunie Asratie¹, Hussien Mohammed Assfaw², Mulunesh Abuhay¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Women's and Family Health, School of Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
² Department of Clinical Midwifery, School of Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Labor companionship is a human interactive process that provides social support during the childbirth process. Despite it being one component of respectful maternity care (RMC) that is used for quality assurance to achieve the sustainable goal of maternal and neonatal mortality reduction, there is limited evidence about the current status of birth companionship. The study was aimed to assess labor companion and its associated factors at Debremarkos town public health facilities.

Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted. The study was conducted at Debremarkos town from February 1/2021 to March 30/2021. From the 559 sample size, 548 women participated in the study. A systematic random sampling technique was used. A pre-tested interviewer-administered questioner was used, data were entered and analyzed with Epi-data version 4.60 and SPSS version 25.0. Bivariable regression was done and variables with p-value </= 0.20 were analyzed with multivariable logistic regression. Variables with p-value </= 0.05 were considered significantly associated with labor companionship. Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit was checked and all multi-collinearity of variables with variance inflation factors (VIF) up to 10 was tolerated.

Results: A total of 548 participants were involved in the study with a 98.03% response rate. The magnitude of labor companionship was found to be 14.6% (11.7-17.5). Women who had complicated pregnancy (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=5.53; 95% CI: 3.09-9.92), women's desire for a labor companion (AOR=3.63; 95% CI: 1.51-8.69), being primipara (AOR=3.49; 95% CI: 1.93-6.35), labor followed by female skilled birth attendant (AOR=0.37;95% CI: 0.17-0.82), and women's perceived busyness of skilled birth attendant (AOR=0.13;95% CI: 0.07-0.23) were significantly associated with labor companionship.

Conclusions: Labor companionship was found to be low. Giving emphasis on the desire, primipara, complicated pregnancy, sex of skilled birth attendant and women perceived busy skilled birth attendant were suggested for the improvement of labor companionship.

Keywords: Debremarkos town; Ethiopia; labor companionship.

Grants and funding

The funder had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.