STUDY OF PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF FEAR OF NORMAL DELIVERY IN PRIMIPAROUS PREGNANT WOMEN IN TALESH COUNTY, IN 2018

Pregnancy and childbirth are a major event in women's life. Fear of childbirth is
one of the most important reasons for not choosing a normal delivery method. In this study, the
prevalence and causes of fear of childbirth in primiparous pregnant women were studied.
Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed by census method on 181
pregnant women who were referred to health centers in Talesh County. The data collection tool was a
questionnaire including demographic characteristics, Information related to childbirth and caesarean,
and the causes fear of childbirth. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software and descriptive statistics,
Chi-square, Fisher exact test and Statistical tests such as Independent t-test and analysis of variance were
used to evaluate the difference between averages and rank.
Results:In this study, 82.7% of mothers had a degree of fear of childbirth(31.8% low fear and 32.9%
moderate fear and 17.9% high fear).There was a significant difference between the knowledge of the
complications of cesarean section and the mean score of fear of normal delivery (P= 0.017) and fear of
childbirth was reduced with increased awareness. The most common cause of fear of childbirth was
harm to the baby.
Conclusion: considering the importance of fear of childbirth in increasing cesarean section, the reasons
for this fear must be taken into account by health authorities and providing counseling services to reduce
the fear of childbirth in primiparous women is recommended