Survey on knowledge, attitude and practice of labor analgesia among health care providers at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia 2021. A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Childbirth is among the most painful experiences a woman has during their childbearing years. Despite improvement in the development of standards for pain assessment and treatment, labor pain is mostly ignored especially in low and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of labor analgesia among health care providers at Debre-Markos comprehensive specialized hospital, Ethiopia,. METHODS: After ethical approval was obtained from the ethical review board, institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2021, written consent was taken from each health care provider (HCP) before data collection, and structured self-administered questionnaires were used. The collected data were coded and analyzed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics were computed to determine frequencies and percentages finally data were presented using texts, tables, and graphs. The study is registered with a research unique identifying number of 7407 found with the link address https://www.researchregistry.com/browse-the registry#home/?view_2_search = 7407&view_2_page = 1 and reported in line with STROCSS 2021. RESULTS: A total of 112 health care providers have participated with 70.5%, 29.5% being males and females respectively. This study was found that most gynecologists/obstetricians, 75% of general practitioners, and more than half (57.1%) of integrated emergency surgery and obstetrics (IESO) have good knowledge about labor analgesia, while the majority (58.3%) of midwives found to have poor knowledge. Although 75% of general practitioners and 71.4% of IESO have a good attitude towards obstetric and labor pain management, only 55.6% of midwives and 51.2% of graduating medical students were found to have a good attitude. Among health care providers (HCP), 60.3% of graduating medical students, 75% of general practitioners, 74.1% of IESO, and most of the seniors were found to have good practice of labor analgesia. CONCLUSION: There is a wide gap among health care providers in knowledge, attitude, and practice of labor analgesia. Training health care providers about safe, efficient, and affordable labor analgesia is crucial to improving health care.