Assessment of the effect of social support in labour : a randomised controlled trial

None listed

Offering social support during childbirth is not practiced in most Nigerian health facilities despite lots of benefits that have been reported elsewhere. This support service involves staying be side women in labour by either her immediate relations – husbands, sisters or mother, or trained person (doula). The support person (companion) offers words of encouragements, pray, massage the back or hands, and also assist the woman in labour to express her views/concerns to the health care providers. The reported benefit includes shorter duration of labour; reduce risk of delivering by caesarean section, better satisfying labour experience and earlier time to initiate breastfeeding. This has made many hospitals in developed countries to adopt this policy in their maternity care despite availability of adequate method of pain relief during labour and childbirth. In Nigeria, women mostly delivered either at home or in mission houses where there labour is supervised by unskilled birth attendants. The policy at most Nigerian health facilities do not permit family members or trained support persons to be by the side of a woman in labour. In addition, pain relief practice is not optimally offered as there is no facility (manpower and equipment) for epidural analgesia. The study explored the possibility of reproducing the benefits of social support in our settings and also seeks to determine whether it could be promoted as a potential strategy to reducing caesarean section rate as a primary outcome. The secondary outcomes measured were duration of active phase of labour, need for pain relief during childbirth, and experience during childbirth.