Assessment of Frequency of Vaginal Examination and Associated Factors by Health Care Providers During Normal Labour in Selected Public Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Intrapartum
guidelines recommend that vaginal examination (VEs) should not be routinely performed and
that women should be ‘offered’ a VE every four hours. Research has shown that the performance
of multiple vaginal examinations can be a risk factor for maternal or fetal infection.
Objectives: To assess the reasons and frequency of vaginal examination by health care providers
during normal labour in selected public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April to May
2015
Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted and the study
participants were health personnel who attend to labour cases in the selected public hospitals and
clients with normal labour who consented to participate in the study during the study period were
included. Study setting was selected purposively based on its client flow from the total public
hospitals in Addis Ababa and convenience sampling technique was used for selecting study
participants.
Result: In this study the number of vaginal examination performed for each women ranges from
one to seven (mean 2.24, SD 0.67), the majority of them were examined 3-4 times 93 (50.0%)
during their labour time. The main reason given by health care providers to conduct vaginal
examination was to check the onset of labour and to check progress of labour .Logistic regression
analysis showed that 1-2 health care providers 0.043 times less likely had frequent vaginal
examination when compared to 3-7 health care providers with adjusted OR 0.043; 95% CI
(0.006, 0.330).
Conclusion and recommendation: frequency of vaginal examination is mostly affected by
number of health care providers who conduct VEs and duration of labour. So, vaginal
examination should have performed only when it is necessary by following WHO guidelines.
Keywords: Vaginal examinations; Progress in labour; health care provider; Labour
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Keywords
Vaginal examinations, Progress in labour, Health care provider, Labour