Majallah-i Dānishgāh-i ̒Ulūm-i Pizishkī-i Bābul (Aug 2009)
The Survey on Tendencies of Primiparous Women for Selecting the Mode of Delivery
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: In recent decades cesarean section(C/S) has increased as a common method of childbirth and it was related to the increase in non-medical reasons. Considering the importance of opinion and decision-making women in the choice of childbirth, this study was done to determine the tendencies of primiparous mothers for selecting the type of childbirth.METHODS: This cross sectional study was performed on 618 primiparous women in the year of 2007. Two stage cluster sampling was performed in public and private hospitals of Tehran, Iran. Questionnaire completed by interview. The collected information in primiparous women included: demographic data, tendency to a type of delivery and the cause of this tendency.FINDINGS: From 618 study subjects, tendency of 272 (44%) people in research was to select C/S and 346 (56%) of them to natural vaginal delivery (NVD). There was a meaningful difference in tendency for choosing the type of delivery between the public and private hospitals (p<0.001), and age of mother (p<0.02). Most affected by the mothers tendencies, was medical staff while most of the information have gained of her relatives and 159 women (74.3%) choose cesarean section due to fear of labor pain that compared to 55 women (25.7%) in NVD group showed significant difference (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, fear of labor pain and medical staff play a role in high cesarean rate. It is recommended that women’s decision for choosing delivery type accomplish after training them by medical staff about the risks and benefits of each type of delivery. In addition study, supervision and more control by ministry of health and medical education on hospitals especially private hospitals is necessary.
