Perception of Postnatal Women Regarding Husband’s Involvement during Pregnancy, Childbirth and Postnatal – A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal are some of the most important stages of life in which women will endure profound life experiences. Husband support during these periods affect maternal health outcomes in several ways, reducing negative maternal health behaviors, risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, fetal growth restriction, and neonatal mortality. The main objective of this study was to find out the perception of postnatal women regarding husbands’ involvement during pregnancy, childbirth, and postnatal. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study design using non-probability purposive sampling technique was carried out among 107 postnatal women who delivered live babies at Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital. A semi-structured interview schedule was used. Descriptive statistic. Such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics such as the Mann Whitney U test were used. Results: The findings revealed that postnatal women had positive perception regarding husbands’ involvement during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal i.e., 97.2%, 99.1% and 99.1% respectively. Study showed that there were significant differences in perception of postnatal women during pregnancy based on respondents’ age, ethnicity, gravida, parity and respondents’ husband age (p-value 0.001, 0.001, 0.04 and 0.005) respectively. There were significant differences in perception of postnatal women during childbirth based on respondents’ age and gravida (p-value 0.001 and 0.025) respectively. Conclusions: The study concludes that postnatal women have positive perception regarding husbands’ involvement during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period. Age, ethnicity, gravida and parity of postnatal women and their husbands’ age influence in perception of postnatal women regarding husbands’ involvement during pregnancy. Age and gravida of postnatal women influence in perception of postnatal women regarding husbands’ involvement during childbirth.