Investigating the causes of fear of childbirth in primiparas and multiparas women

Childbirth is an important experience in a woman's life. Fear of childbirth is a common problem for pregnant women. Since there is association between fear of childbirth and adverse perinatal outcomes this study aimed to investigate the causes of fear of childbirth in pregnant women.

In this Descriptive-Comparative study a randomly sample of 300 primiparas and 300 multiparas who delivered vaginally were interviewed. The data was collected by a questionnaire. For data analysis, it was used descriptive and analytical statistics t-test and Pearson's correlation.

The finding showed that Primiparas had a mean score of fear and anxiety (46/50±5/45) while multiparas had a mean score (46/09 ±8/07) and Comparison of the means of fear and anxiety scores between the two groups demonstrated no significant difference (p=0/465). A total of 86/7% of the primiparas and 77/6% of the multiparas had moderate levels of fear and anxiety. The main cause of fear of childbirth in primiparas women was being alone in hospital (68/7%) and labor pain (57/3%). Also, in multiparas women was perineal laceration (53%) and being alone in hospital (40%).

Since women's experience of childbirth is different and hospitalization of a pregnant woman performing routine diagnostic and care techniques during the labor and delivery process influence the mother's experience of fear of childbirth so the results might help medical staff for detection of the causes of this fear and adopt proper measures to greatly reduce fear and anxiety in all the pregnant women.