Abstract

Men are the major decision makers in the home; thus, this study was designed to assess the knowledge and practice of married men towards safe motherhood in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study was adopted using a multi-stage and proportionate sampling technique to recruit three hundred and ten married men.  A semi-structured questionnaire used to solicit information on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge and practice of safe motherhood among respondents. Knowledge were measured on 35-point and knowledge scores of ≤11, 12-23, ≥24 were rated poor, fair and good respectively. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were conducted at 5% level of significance. Respondents’ age was 43.7±7.9 years, 85.5% were Yoruba and 54.5% were Muslims, 47.1% of the respondents had secondary education. A good number of the respondents (64.2%) had safe motherhood awareness but the knowledge of safe motherhood was poor (74.8%). About one-third (33.1%) understood safe motherhood as taking care of women throughout pregnancy. The overall mean knowledge score was 8.97±3.48. Level of education and occupation were statistically significant with respondents' knowledge of safe motherhood. There is need to enlighten married men about safe motherhood and involvement in maternal health.

Key words: Married men, safe motherhood, maternal health, safe motherhood knowledge, practice.