Midwives’ attitudes and related factors towards elective cesarean section

Abstract

Objective (s): To assess midwives’ attitudes toward cesarean section.Methods: This was a descriptive study to determine the attitudes of midwives and related factors towards elective cesarean section. In all 325 midwives working in hospitals and health care centers in Tehran were entered into the study. A study specific questionnaire was administered in order to collect data. It was consisted of two sections on work experience, age, place of work, physiologic childbirth preparation courses, education, place of graduation and attitudes. Results: The mean age of participants was 37 years (SD = 49). Among participants 44.9 and 55.1 percent were working in the delivery room and prenatal care or health center respectively. There were positive attitudes toward elective cesarean among 80 participants (24.6%). There were significant association between midwives’ attitude about elective cesarean and place of graduation, choice of method of delivery for themselves or their daughter, effect of delivery method among inpatient mothers, time of termination, and their views about cesarean section rate in Iran.(P<0.05).Conclusion: The findings indicated that positive attitudes toward elective cesarean were high among midwives. Indeed it is important to change midwives’ attitudes if there is a wish to reduce cesarean section rates in Iran.

Keywords

• midvife
• attitude
• delivery
• cesarean