Newborn Safety and Delivery Practices Among Midwives in Selected Hospitals in Ibadan, Oyo State

The study examined newborn safety and delivery practices among midwives in selected hospitals in Ibadan, Oyo state. The research design was a descriptive cross sectional survey design. The study setting is two of the oldest hospitals for maternal care in Ibadan, Oyo State, with a bias towards maternal and child care. The sample size used to represent the whole population was determined using the Yaro Yamane formular. Sample size of 133 midwives was used as respondents from both general hospitals. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select the sample size. The instrument for data collection was a self-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated for content by experts in the field of nursing science and Tests & Measurement. Twenty copies of the validated questionnaire was pre-tested in a pilot study and the data obtained was tested using Cronbach alpha to get reliability value of 0.807. The questionnaire was self-administered, with the help of trained research assistants. The findings of the study revealed that factors that affect midwives and newborn safety practices include nurses’ attitude towards expanding their knowledge, patient not cooperating with nurse but relying on physician judgments, lack of instruments use for delivery, poor ante-natal care attendance by mothers and incompetent skills by midwives. It was recommended among others that health care facilities should allow nurses to work according to their area of specialization and qualification within the hospitals to enhance midwives to practice their work more often and build more on their knowledge about their practices and safety of a newborn.

Keywords: Newborn Safety, Delivery Practices, Midwives,