METHODS
This prospective cross-sectional survey was carried out at the delivery
unit of the Tamale Teaching Hospital from June 2016 to December 2020.
The research committee of the Tamale Teaching Hospital approved the
study protocol on May 17, 2016 for the data collection. Written informed
consent was obtained from the individual woman after providing them with
adequate explanations regarding the aims of the study.
The study recruited women who came to the maternity unit of the Tamale
Teaching Hospital for childbirth. All recruited women consented to be
part of this study. We excluded women who suffered post-delivery
complications, those who were scheduled for cesarean section and all
eligible women who declined to participate in this study. A convenience
sampling technique was used to randomly select the study participants.
After obtaining written informed consent from each qualified
participant, they were asked to randomly pick confidentially prepared
slips that had either ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ inscribed on them. Only eligible
respondents who happened to pick slips with the inscription ‘YES’ were
enrolled for the study. The participants were required to complete a
structured questionnaire which was developed and validated by the
authors for this study. The questionnaire was prepared in English and
had it translated and explained to respondents in their local language
where necessary. The primary
outcomes measured were awareness and
factors that affected epidural
labour analgesia acceptance at the delivery unit of the Tamale Teaching
Hospital.
Statistical Analysis
The sample size for this study was calculated using the equation
[12].