BACKGROUND:
Globally, waterbirth is recognized as a birthing option that offers women benefits. Despite evidence-based benefits, its implementation remains limited in African settings, including Abuja, Nigeria, where waterbirth is yet to be introduced.

OBJECTIVES:
To examine perceptions about waterbirth among women and maternity care providers and to explore maternity care providers’ perspectives of potential barriers and facilitators to waterbirth in tertiary hospital settings in Abuja.

METHODS:
A convergent parallel mixed-methods design that involved cross-sectional quantitative and descriptive qualitative approaches. Multi-staged sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 416, made up of 331 women, 48 midwives and 29 obstetricians. Sampling for qualitative part was purposive and continued until data saturation. It consisted of 13 midwives and 10 obstetricians. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 27 and qualitative data manually, using the Braun and Clarke six steps of thematic analysis.

RESULTS:
There were positive perceptions regarding waterbirth across the three groups of respondents, with the midwives having the most positive perception. Qualitative results were grouped into two themes: potential barriers and potential facilitators to the implementation and use of waterbirth. Potential barriers were various personal factors, lack of local evidence, institutional constraints, and cultural beliefs, among others. Potential facilitators were the availability of services, training, sensitization, waterbirth resources, protocols/guidelines, and institutional support.

CONCLUSIONS:
Institutional support, funding, provision of infrastructure, including protocols/guidelines and training of providers are critical to successful waterbirth implementation and use. Equally, important is public sensitisation to increase awareness and demystify waterbirth.

KEY MESSAGE:
The integration of waterbirth practices into Nigeria’ maternal healthcare is feasible and current study provides baseline understanding of maternity care provider’s views regarding potential barriers and facilitators. Poster session 1 (Group A)