STUDY OF PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF FEAR OF NORMAL DELIVERY IN PRIMIPAROUS PREGNANT WOMEN IN TALESH COUNTY, IN 2018

  Pregnancy and childbirth are a major event in women's life. Fear of childbirth is one of the most important reasons for not choosing a normal delivery method. In this study, the prevalence and causes of fear of childbirth in primiparous pregnant women were studied. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed by census method on 181 pregnant women who were referred to health centers in Talesh County. The data collection tool was a questionnaire including demographic characteristics, Information related to childbirth and caesarean, and the causes fear of childbirth. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software and descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Fisher exact test and Statistical tests such as Independent t-test and analysis of variance were used to evaluate the difference between averages and rank. In this study, 82.7% of mothers had a degree of fear of childbirth(31.8% low fear and 32.9% moderate fear and 17.9% high fear).There was a significant difference between the knowledge of the complications of cesarean section and the mean score of fear of normal delivery (P= 0.017) and fear of childbirth was reduced with increased awareness. The most common cause of fear of childbirth was harm to the baby. considering the importance of fear of childbirth in increasing cesarean section, the reasons for this fear must be taken into account by health authorities and providing counseling services to reduce the fear of childbirth in primiparous women is recommended.