Published Paper Details:

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Child birth well-known as labor or delivery is a beautiful life event which is personal and different for each woman. During this period women have more concerns about their mode of delivery especially in the first delivery. The mother's right to choose the mode of d Vaginal delivery is the natural method of birth, though about 10% of normal deliveries may be complicated, caesarean section delivery is suggested to prevent either maternal or fetal morbidities and mortalities. Vaginal delivery is an essential component of compassionate and respectful care in modern obstetrics. Near about thirty years ago, there has been a significant rise in Caesarean section rates in middle- and developed countries all over the world. Caeserean section rates persist to increase in spite of data that there is no related enhancement to women or babies health; to a certain extent. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the level of knowledge on the choice of mode of delivery among antenatal mothers in selected hospitals, Kamrup (M), Assam. 2. To assess the level of attitude on the choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery and caesarean section among antenatal mothers in selected hospitals, Kamrup (M), Assam. 3. To find out the correlation between the level of knowledge and attitude for normal vaginal delivery and caesarean section on choice of mode of delivery among antenatal mothers in selected hospitals, Kamrup (M), Assam. 4. To find out the association between the level of knowledge on choice of mode of delivery among antenatal mothers with the selected demographic variables. 5. To find out the association between the attitude on choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery and caesarean section among antenatal mothers with the selected demographic variables. METHODS AND MATERIALS A descriptive survey research design was used in the study to accomplished the objectives. Purposive sampling technique was used for obtaining adequate sample for the study. Study was undertaken on 100 samples of antenatal mothers of selected hospitals of Kamrup (M), Assam. Respondents were selected on the basis of inclusive and exclusive criteria. A self - structured knowledge questionnaire and 5 point Likert scale was used as tool for the study. RESULT Out of 100 antenatal mothers, majority i.e 78 (78%) had moderate knowledge, 16(16%) had adequate knowledge and 6(6% ) had inadequate knowledge towards the choice of mode of delivery among antenatal mothers. The association was statistically tested and result showed that there were statistically significant between level of knowledge and selected demographic variables such as family income at p<0.01 level. With fisher exact p value of (p=0.004). On assessment of level of attitude towards the choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery, 64 (64%) had desirable attitude, 36(36%) had moderately desirable attitude and none had undesirable attitude towards normal vaginal delivery while for caeserean section, 53(53%) had moderately desirable attitude and 47(47%) had desirable attitude and none had undesirable attitude. On the assessment of correlation between knowledge and attitude scores towards the choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery, the ' r 'value is 0.224 and ' p ' value is 0.025 which is statistically significant at p<0.05 level of significant. The other demographic variables had not shown statistically significant association with the level of knowledge of antenatal mothers towards the choice of mode of delivery. On assessment of level of attitude towards the choice of mode of delivery for caesarean section, majority of the respondents i.e 53(53%) had moderately desirable attitude and 47(47%) had desirable attitude with mean 32.24 and SD 2.51. On assessment of correlation between knowledge and attitude scores towards the choice of mode of delivery for caesarean section among antenatal mothers, the ' r ' value is 0.129 and ' p ' value is p = 0.200 which is statistically not significant at 0.05 level of significant. There was no statistically significant association between level of attitude towards both normal vaginal delivery and caesarean delivery with selected demographic variables. There is a weak positive correlation between knowledge and level of attitude of antenatal mothers towards the choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery and caesarean section. This clearly infers that when the knowledge on choice of mode of delivery among antenatal mothers increases then their attitude towards the choice of mode of delivery for normal vaginal delivery also increases and their attitude for caesarean section will be moderately desirable. CONCLUSION After analyzing data collected, this study shows that the antenatal mothers have moderately adequate knowledge and desirable attitude for normal vaginal delivery and moderately desirable attitude for caesarean delivery towards the choice of mode of delivery. Therefore, it is recommended that there should be an awareness programme regarding the different mode of delivery its advantages, disadvantages respectively and it complications and also how to prepared mentally, emotionally and financially for delivery to the antenatal mothers, their spouse, family members so as to support them to choose their type of delivery. The healthcare worker should also educate the antenatal mothers whenever they come for check-up which will increase their knowledge and will promote maternal health.