NCT04173351

The Effects of Antenatal Education and Counseling on Childbirth Fear of Nulliparous Women

The Effects of Antenatal Education and Counseling on Childbirth Fear of Nulliparous Women and Their Attitudes Towards Childbirth

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 132 (actual)
• Sponsor: Saglik Bilimleri Universitesi Gulhane Tip Fakultesi · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study investigates the effects of antenatal education and counseling on childbirth preparation and pain management given to nulliparous women during the last trimester on their childbirth fear and childbirth attitudes.

Detailed description

Pregnancy is an important period of life that the pregnant women have biological, physiological, emotional and social changes in order to adapt to maternity. Fear of childbirth is a common problem and has a negative impact on the childbirth experience. The prevalence of fear associated with childbirth is around 20% but approximately 6 to 10% of women experience intense fear of labour. In Turkey, it estimated that the prevalence of childbirth fear among the Turkish pregnant women was approximately 21% . Fear of childbirth can cause significant problems during childbirth and the postpartum period. This fear is commonly associated with concern for the baby, pain in childbirth, longer first and second stage of labour and dissatisfaction with the childbirth experiences. Especially nulliparous women experience fear of childbirth more than multipar women. Fear of childbirth has also been implicated in women's requests for caesarean sections and increased rate of elective caesarean sections. Antenatal education is an essential health service throughout the world. Antenatal education during the last trimester may decrease childbirth fear. Also, pregnant women who received antenatal education, had a positive birth experience, better maternal adjustment and fewer symptoms of postnatal depression. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of antenatal education and counseling on childbirth preparation and pain management given to nulliparous women during the last trimester on their childbirth fear and childbirth attitudes. This randomized controlled study was conducted at Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic between February 2016 and January 2017. 132 nulliparous women between the 28th and 34th gestational weeks constituted the sample of the study. Data was collected by using personal information questionnaire, the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionairre (W-DEQ) Version A, W-DEQ Version B, and Childbirth Attitudes Questionairre (CAQ). Following the pretest, participants in the intervention group received childbirth preparation education and telephone counseling. Participants in the control group received no intervention other than the routine antenatal follow-up. For both groups, pretest and posttest were conducted during the same days, antenatal evaluation took place between the 38th and the 40th gestational weeks and postnatal evaluation was conducted during the first and the second postnatal days. The IBM SPSS (Statistical package for the Social Sciences) 22.0 package program was used to evaluate the data obtained in the study.

Conditions

• Fear of Childbirth

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Education and Counseling	Following the pretests between the 28th and the 34th gestational weeks, nulliparous women in the intervention group received a presentation on childbirth preparation at a room of the obstetrics clinic. The education was completed in two sections in a single day. Each session took about 45 minutes there was a 15-minute break between the sessions. Following the education, the questions of the participants were responded and educational brochures on childbirth preparation were given to the participants. One of the researchers of this study telephoned the participant women in the intervention group one week after the childbirth education and provided counseling service about the demands and the points that the nulliparous women wondered.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-02-15
• Primary completion: 2017-01-15
• Completion: 2017-01-15
• First posted: 2019-11-21
• Last updated: 2019-11-21