This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study of 224 randomly
selected antenatal women receiving care at the University College Hospital,
Ibadan, Nigeria. The study aimed to seek the attitude and preferences of
respondents about social support during childbirth and also identify variables
that may influence their decisions. Seventy-five per cent of respondents
desired companionship in labour. Approximately 86% preferred their husband
as companion while 7% and 5% wanted their mother and siblings as
support person respectively. Reasons for their desire for social support were
emotional (80·2%), spiritual (17·9%), errands (8·6%) and physical activity
(6·8%). Socio-demographic variables found to be statistically significant on
logistic regression analysis for the desire of a companion in labour were
nulliparity (OR 3·57, 95% CI 1·49–8·52), professionals (OR 3·11, 95% CI
1·22–7·94) and women of other ethnic groups besides Yoruba (OR 2·90, 95%
CI 1·02–8·26), which is the predominant ethnic group in the study area. Only
those with post-secondary education were found to want their husbands as
doula (OR 2·96, 95% CI 1·08–8·11). More than half of the respondents
wanted information about labour prior to their experience. It is important
that Nigerian women are allowed the benefit of social support during
childbirth, particularly as there is a lack of one-to-one nursing care and other
critical services, including epidural analgesia in labour, at many of the health
care facilities in Nigeria. Men could play a pivotal role in the process of
introducing support in labour so as to improve the outcome for both the
mother and her newborn.