KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF MARRIED MEN TOWARDS SAFE MOTHERHOOD IN IBADAN NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Safe motherhood is one of the interventions proposed to reduce maternal mortality rate. Majority of the deaths can be prevented if women receive adequate care and make informed decision about their health. Since men are the major decision makers in the home and it is believed that their involvement in safe motherhood can lead to good maternal health. This study was designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and perception of married men towards safe motherhood in Ibadan North Local Government Area. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study which employed a multi stage sampling technique. The twelve wards in Ibadan North local government was stratified into three zones based on their level of development, two wards were randomly selected from each zone to get a total sampling frame of six wards. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select the number of respondents from each community. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was administered on three hundred and ten respondents to document their socio-demographic characteristics, awareness and knowledge of safe motherhood, attitude towards safe motherhood and their perception about safe motherhood. Factors influencing their involvement in safe motherhood was also investigated. Knowledge, attitude and perception were measured on 35-point, 10-point and 8-point scales respectively. Knowledge scores of ≤11, 12-23, ≥24 were rated poor, fair and good respectively. Attitude scores of ≤ 5 and >5 were rated negative and positive attitude respectively while perception score ≤ 4 and > 4 was rated negative and positive perception respectively. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test at 5% level of significance Age of respondents was 43.7 ± 7.9 years, 85.5% were Yoruba and 54.5% were Muslims, the highest educational qualification of majority of the respondents was secondary education (47.1%), slightly more than half (51.6%) make a joint decision with their wives on where they seek maternity care. A good number of the respondents (64.2%) had safe motherhood awareness but the knowledge of safe motherhood was poor (74.8%). About one-third (33.1%) understood safe motherhood as taking care of women throughout pregnancy. Knowledge about danger signs in pregnancy and childbirth was low with mean scores of 1.2± 0.9, 0.8± 0.8 respectively. The overall mean knowledge score was 8.97±3.48 out of a 35- point knowledge scale.

Occupation, level of education were statistically significant with respondents' knowledge of safe motherhood. Majority of the respondent (72.6%) and (76.8%) has positive attitude and perception towards safe motherhood respectively. There was no significant relationship between respondent's knowledge and attitude, knowledge and perception about safe motherhood. Reported reasons for non participation was time factor (30.3%), men do not consider it necessary (25.3%) and knowledge deficit (20.9%). Although awareness of safe motherhood, perception and attitude was high among the respondents, their knowledge about safe motherhood is poor. Their is need to enlighten married men about safe motherhood and involvement in maternal health.