Article Sidebar
Keywords:
Article Details
The entire contents of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use.
This journal content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
Grandmultiparity: Emerging Trend in a Tropical Community
Abstract
Objective: To determine the current prevalence of grandmultiparity and the pattern of utilisation of maternity services by grandmultipara in Benin City.
Subjects and Methods: A total of 1280 antenatal patients were interviewed in four large maternity centres between the months of June and September 1998 using a structured questionnaire.
Results: Grandmultipara made up 7.34% of the antenatal population. Their average age was 33.7 ± 5.08 years. Social classes 3 and 4 constituted the majority with a frequency of 37.8% and 35.6% respectively. The incidence of high parity increased with social class up to social class 3 and declined thereafter. The majority (57.5%) of the patients had only primary school education. The odds against a grandmultipara being educated more than primary school compared to the multipara was significant (OR = 4.96 (95% CI 3.13-7.86, P<0.0001). Most grandmultipara (64.4%) booked late for antenatal care. They were more likely to have delivered at home -31.91% (OR = 2.18; 95% CI: 1.34-3.52, P=0.001, and in church — 9.75% (OR = 12.45; 95% CI: 4.51-34.24, P = 0.0002) in their last pregnancy.
Conclusion: The relative prevalence of grandmultiparity in the community is low and it is associated with poor utilisation of maternity services. This group of mothers should be actively discouraged from delivering at home and in churches. Reproductive health care services in the community should be strengthened.
(Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2001, 18(1): 27-30)
