Effects of childbirth education classes on self-efficacy of nulliparous women in coping with labour pain

Effects of childbirth education classes on self-efficacy of nulliparous women in coping with labour pain

 Introduction: Self-efficacy defined as a belief about one’s capabilities to cope with stressful situations and execute a specific coping behavior. Women with higher levels of self-efficacy for birth have more ability to use coping strategies during specific phases of labour. Studies suggested that greater confidence in coping with labour predict lower levels of labour pain, and also related to birth choice. There aren’t any studies that examined the effect of childbirth preparation classes on self-efficacy in coping with labour pain in Iran, thus further research is required to explore such effects.

 

Method: A convenience sample of 267 nulliparous women attending antenatal clinic at Milad Hospital completed Childbirth questionnaire attitude (at the second trimester of gestation). Childbirth self-efficacy Inventory (Lowe) was administered to a sample of 100 pregnant women who were eligible to participate in the study .The participants were randomly assigned to the case and control groups. The case control was composed of 50 pregnant women who attended childbirth preparation classes over the 8 weeks period whereas the control group received only standard antenatal care. The intervention aimed at increasing self-efficacy to decrease fears of childbirth.

 

Results: The mean scores of self-efficacy were compared both within each group and between the case and the control groups using the pair and independent t-test.

The mean scores of self-efficacy differed significantly for the case group (95.56+/_35.83 vs. 135/83+/_19.5, p <0.001) but not for the control group (95.5+/_28.2 vs. 98.96+/_31.98, p>0.001).After intervention, there was significant difference between the mean self efficacy score for the case and control groups (p<0.001). The results indicating that the classroom intervention had a positive effect on self-efficacy and resulted in enhanced self-efficacy, and decreased childbirth fear.

Key words: Self-efficacy, childbirth education, childbirth fear