BIRTHPLACE PREFERENCES AMONG POSTPARTUM WOMEN: A STUDY FROM AWKA SOUTH, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the attitude and preference for place during childbirth among Postpartum Women in Awka South Local Government. A descriptive cross sectional survey design with simple random sampling technique was used to select 390 postpartum women from the total population of 15,800. A structured self-administered questionnaire was adapted and used to collect data. Statistical Package for Social Science version 22.0 was used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics of measure of central tendency statistics (mean). The study has shown that; 18.3% of the respondents were between 20 – 30years, 41.3 % were between 31 – 40 years, 34.4% were between 41 – 50 years while 6% were between 51 years and above. It also revealed that most (45%) women preferred private hospitals, some preferred teaching hospitals while some preferred health centres, women had positive attitude towards Private hospital, Teaching hospital, General hospital, Health centre and a negative attitude towards Traditional birth home and Personal home, factors associated with attitude and preference of place during childbirth among postpartum women includes Safety, Cost, Distance, Fear, Convenience, Spouse decision tec. The study concludes that women have attitude and preference for place during childbirth. The study therefore recommends that understanding women's preferences for antenatal care through discrete choice experiments can inform the development of maternal healthcare services that align with women's preferences and needs