Pregnant Women’s Knowledge and Attitudes toward Epidural Anesthesia in Saudi Arabia

Pharmaceutical Science-Obstetrics for better Mother health

Abstract

Labor pain is one of the most severe forms of pain a woman can endure throughout her lifetime. Epidural anesthesia (EA) is a widely used and effective method of analgesia for labor pain. If administered timely, EA relives about 90% to 95% of the labor pain. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge  and attitudes toward EA in a sample of pregnant women from  Jazan  region, Saudi Arabia.   We conducted  a cross-sectional  study on a sample of 172 pregnant women  using an online survey. Socio demographic data and responses to the questions about knowledge and attitudes toward EA were analyzed using descriptive  tests  and  Chi-square  test. The  mean  age of participants  was 27.8 ± 6.3 years. About 46.5% of respondents  had a university  degree and 39.5% had finished  high school. Overall,  women  showed  adequate knowledge  about EA and 36.6% had positive attitudes  toward  the use of EA for labor pain. The factors that were significantly associated with positive attitudes were education (χ2: 24.98, P<0.05), parity (χ2: 22.93, P<0.05), past experience with EA (χ2: 32.24, P<0.001), and source of knowledge (χ2: 19.61, P<0.05).   This study revealed  adequate knowledge  about EA among pregnant women. More than one-third (36.6%) showed positive attitudes toward  using  EA. Significant factors affecting  attitudes toward  EA  were high education, multiparty, experience with EA, and source of information  about EA. Implications and recommendations  are discussed.