Anaesthesia for caesarean delivery: Choice of technique among antenatal attendees in North-eastern Nigeria

The objective of this study is to document the anaesthetic preference of pregnant women in two tertiary institutions in North-eastern Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional study of pregnant women seen at the antenatal clinics of the university of Maiduguri teaching hospital and Federal Medical Centre, Yola, from August to October 2009. A total of 254 women were interviewed. They were aged 18-43 with a mean of 28.56 ± 5.602 years. The parity ranged from 1-9 with a mean of 2.71 ± 1.956. Most (178, 70.1%) respondents preferred general anaesthesia and the commonest reason for the preference was various forms of fear 128 (71.9 %). The commonest reason for preference for regional anaesthesia was to watch the procedure live 50 (65.8%). Age (χ(2) = 52.364, p = 0.000), education (χ(2) = 8.780, p = 0.032), occupation (χ(2) = 18.555, p = 0.002) and religion (χ(2) = 4.936, p = 0.026) were significantly associated with preference for general anaesthesia. Only age (p = 0.000, OR 8.17, CI = 0.000-1.00) retained significance after multivariate analysis. Considering the fact that the global trend is towards regional anaesthesia due to lower morbidity and mortality, the high preference for general anaesthesia in our survey is worrisome. Health education during antenatal clinics should highlight the superiority of regional over general anaesthesia for caesarean delivery.