AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Fear of childbirth

by Hanna Rouhe




Institution: University of Helsinki
Department: Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Year: 2015
Keywords: lääketiede
Record ID: 1130647
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/154673


Abstract

Every 10th pregnant women suffers from severe fear of childbirth. It causes anxiety and physical symptoms during pregnancy, and may interfere with mother-infant bonding. Caesarean sections on maternal request are rising worldwide. The major indication is fear of childbirth. There is no clinical guideline regarding how to help these women. This present study was designed to investigate the background factors of fear of childbirth; to assess the methods to screen fear of childbirth; analyse the effect of group psycho-education on delivery mode, delivery experience, costs and postnatal psycho-social well-being; and also to evaluate the psychiatric morbidity of women with fear of childbirth. We tested the fear of childbirth questionnaire in the Finnish population and simultaneously gathered the obstetrical background information of 1,348 pregnant women. We used the Fear of Childbirth VAS for the first time in measuring fear of childbirth. With a cut-off of Fear of Childbirth VAS over 5.0, the sensitivity is 98%, and the specificity is 67% for severe fear of childbirth. Nulliparous women have more fear of childbirth than parous women. Women who were more afraid of childbirth preferred caesarean section as delivery mode. Women who had have previously delivered by caesarean section or had vacuum-assisted delivery, were more fearful. The Fear of Childbirth VAS is a simple method for screening fear of childbirth. In a register-based study, we analysed specialised care with psychiatric diagnoses and psychotropic medication of 2,500 women with fear of childbirth and 5,000 control women. The prevalence of mental health problems was higher (54%) among women with fear of childbirth than among control women (34%). The most common mental disorders were anxiety disorders and depression. Mental health problems should be acknowledged in maternity care. In randomised study, nulliparous women were screened for fear of childbirth, and 371 women with severe fear of childbirth were included in our study. These women were randomised into an intervention group and convetional care. The intervention consisted of six times of group psycho-education with mindfulness relaxation exercises led by a psychologist during pregnancy and one session postnatal. Women in the intervention group had more often normal vaginal delivery (63% vs. 48%) than women in the control group. The childbirth experience was less frightening for women in the intervention group, regardless of the delivery mode. Group psycho-education improved maternal adjustment and reduced the risk of postnatal depressive symptoms. The costs of group psycho-education were saved in delivery costs, and thus this treatment causes no additional expenses to conventional care. By providing nulliparous women with group psycho-education, more resources can be appointed to parous women with fear of childbirth in special maternity care. Vaikea synnytyspelko on yleinen ongelma kuormittaen joka 10. raskautta. Synnytyspelko ilmenee ahdistuneisuutena ja fyysisinä vaivoina raskauden aikana,…