WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Shaista Rashid*, Asma Iqbal and Aisha Khatoon

ABSTRACT

Background: Fear of childbirth is an important women’s health concern. A negative birth experience has negative effects on mental health, and lead to fear of a subsequent birth. The aim of study is to determine the frequency of severe maternal fear of childbirth in current pregnancy with previous negative birth experience. Methodology: This is a cross sectional study was conducted between Jan2020 to July 2020 at Gynecology & Obstetrics Unit; Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi. Total 153 pregnant women between 20 -40 years after 32 weeks with negative birth experience were included. The wijma delivery experience questionnaire was used to assess the level of fear. Demographic data was presented as frequency and percentages. Effect modifiers were controlled through stratification to see the effect of these on maternal fear of child birth with p-value of ?0.05 as significant. Results: The mean age of the women was 30.10±4.10years. Mean gestational age was 35.69 weeks with SD ±2.06. Out of 153 patients, 26.1% of the women reported severe fear of delivery, a score of ?85 on the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire and 73.9% had no maternal fear. Conclusion: A negative birth experience has negative effects on mental health, and lead to fear of a subsequent birth. Early identification of subjectively negative birth experiences by healthcare professionals may prevent severe fear in future pregnancies.

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