Background: Perceived social support is essential during pregnancy. The delivery of healthy term babies is the joy of every mother. Sometimes, premature deliveries with their immediate and long-time complications do occur despite adequate antenatal care given to pregnant women.

Objectives: To evaluate the determinants and relationship between prenatal perceived maternal family social support and pre-term delivery in a tertiary hospital in southern Nigeria

Methodology: A systematic sampling of 200 newly delivered women at Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Nigeria was carried out after ethical approval was obtained. The study group consisted of 100 cases versus 100 control groups. Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) questionnaire was administered to each of the participants. The gestational age (weeks) at birth was retrieved from the respondents’ case files. The results were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 17. P-values ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: There was a high mean MSPSS score among the study group (28.48±6.24). Good perceived maternal social support had direct relationship with term delivery. The place of residence and family type/cycle were found to be predictors of good maternal family social support.

Conclusions: A good perceived maternal social support is necessary for normal term delivery. Medical doctors attending to pregnant women should evaluate the maternal social support in order to prevent pre-term deliveries and their associated consequences.

Keywords: Maternal. Social. Support. Predictors. Birth. Weight.

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Ibuaku J.C.

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