Male Involvement in Maternity Care And Birth Preparedness Of Their Spouse

Abstract

Lack of  involvement in maternity care by male  is a major public health issue and it is most neglected aspect of health in Pakistan .although males are involved in every decision making for female and children’s for health care facilities. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to select 461 male Participants a Systematic random sampling technique was used. Ethical approval was taken from Ethical Review Committee. The information collected by interview to assess the involvement of male. The data collection tool comprised of two parts demographic variable and maternity and birth preparedness related variables. The mean, standard deviation and percentage, was calculated and know the association and chi-square test applied for data analyze. Results: Mean age of male was 35.3 years S.D ±6.6, less than half of the participants (42.3%) were illiterate followed by primary (23.2%), middle (18.9%), and Matric (10.4%), above Matric (5.2%). Husbands were main decision makers for maternity care and place of birth (92.6%) followed by fathers (6.1%) and brothers (1.3%). During the antenatal visits 41.6% men had accompanied their spouses or women for antenatal visits but there is 58.4% men not accompany their spouses or women for antenatal visits. Conclusion: Male involvement in maternal care and birth preparedness is not  appropriate enough and knowledge related complication and labor, about overall maternal and child health and complications of pregnancy and labor, level of education, encouragement of their spouses, are the decisive factors in availing the benefits of maternal and  child care