Fear of Childbirth in Pregnancy and Some of its Effective Factors

• Main Authors: Houri Alijani, Narjes Sadat Borghei, Naser Behnampour
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Golestan University of Medical Sciences 2019-01-01
• Series: Journal of Research Development in Nursing and Midwifery
• Subjects: Tocophobia; Fear of Childbirth; Cesarean section; Pregnancy
• Online Access: http://goums.ac.ir/jgbfnm/browse.php?a_code=A-10-938-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1

Background and objectives: Fear and anxiety during pregnancy will have a great impact on the mental health of the mother and the fetus, These conditions may be due to fear of Childbirth, which can exacerbate sense of pain, increase the amount of pain, anxiety, distress, discomfort and disability. Therefore, in addition to measuring the amount of fear of childbirth, using the Wijma Questionnaire (version A), we decided to evaluate the factors affecting on it. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was performed on 211 eligible mothers in health centers of Gorgan, Iran, in the second six months of 1396, by simple sampling. The Data was collected by Wijma Maternity Wear Questionnaire (A) and analyzed by means of SPSS software version 18 using Fisher and Kruskal Wallis tests at a significance level of 0.05. Results: the range of maternal fear of childbirth scores was from 14 to 120 with a mean of 61.75 and a standard deviation of 22.99. About 77.2% of mothers had a mild or moderate, 18.5% had clinical and 4.3% had severe fear of childbirth. In this study, the pregnant woman’s and her husband’s job, as well as husband's level of education, were identified as the most important influencing factor on the fear of childbirth. Conclusion: According to this study, 18.5% of the Nulliparous mothers had clinical and 4.3% had severe fear of Childbirth; therefore, in order to promote the pregnant mother’s mental health, new strategies should be adopted to reduce this fear. In addition, knowing the factors affecting this fear will help us to plan and implement strategies to deal with the fear of childbirth more accurately.