Midwives perceptions of partner presence in childbirth pain alleviation in Nigeria hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: partner presence in the labour room can influence childbirth pain outcomes and maternal well-being. We examined midwives' perception of the use of partner presence in the management of childbirth pain in Nigerian hospitals.

DESIGN: a descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study.

SETTING: maternity units of four hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria, Jun.-Dec., 2014.

PARTICIPANTS: 100 midwives selected through convenience sampling.

MEASUREMENTS: data collected using the Abuja Instrument for Midwives (AIM) questionnaire underwent frequency, correlation, and content analysis.

FINDINGS: most midwives felt partner presence contributed to pain relief and were willing to allow partner presence as an intervention for childbirth pain. However, only every fourth midwife reported using partner presence as a pain management intervention.

KEY CONCLUSION: partner presence is perceived as contributing to pain relief and is a non-pharmacological technique reported to be utilised by midwives for pain management during childbirth. However, Nigeria suffers from poor utilisation of partner presence as a pain management intervention during childbirth.

IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: information from this study can improve midwifery practice and aid further research regarding midwives' attitudes, knowledge and usage of partner presence in pain management during childbirth.