This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study of 224 randomly selected antenatal women receiving care at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. The study aimed to seek the attitude and preferences of respondents about social support during childbirth and also identify variables that may influence their decisions. Seventy-five per cent of respondents desired companionship in labour. Approximately 86% preferred their husband as companion while 7% and 5% wanted their mother and siblings as support person respectively. Reasons for their desire for social support were emotional (80·2%), spiritual (17·9%), errands (8·6%) and physical activity (6·8%). Socio-demographic variables found to be statistically significant on logistic regression analysis for the desire of a companion in labour were nulliparity (OR 3·57, 95% CI 1·49–8·52), professionals (OR 3·11, 95% CI 1·22–7·94) and women of other ethnic groups besides Yoruba (OR 2·90, 95% CI 1·02–8·26), which is the predominant ethnic group in the study area. Only those with post-secondary education were found to want their husbands as doula (OR 2·96, 95% CI 1·08–8·11). More than half of the respondents wanted information about labour prior to their experience. It is important that Nigerian women are allowed the benefit of social support during childbirth, particularly as there is a lack of one-to-one nursing care and other critical services, including epidural analgesia in labour, at many of the health care facilities in Nigeria. Men could play a pivotal role in the process of introducing support in labour so as to improve the outcome for both the mother and her newborn.