Women's knowledge and attitude towards mode of delivery in Ganjavian Hospital in Dezful

Increasing the rate of cesarean section is a major public health problem; Because cesarean section threathened mothers and infant's health. Also, the cost of health care is higher compared to natural childbirth. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude of nulliparous women towards the type of delivery in patients referred to Ganjavian Hospital in Dezful.

The present study is a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 425 primiparous women over 18 years of age whose gestational age was between 28-40 weeks of gestation that whom referred to the midwifery clinic of Ganjavian Hospita. Data collection tool in this study was a three-part questionnaire including demographic characteristics, the questions on knowledge and attitude towards CS and normal vaginal delivery. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by content validity method and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by retest. The questionnaire was completed through interviews. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 22 software.

The results of the present study showed that the mean and standard deviation of the age of primiparous women was 24.6 ± 5.4 and the mean gestational age was 39 weeks. About natural childbirth, 28.9% of primiparous women had poor knowledge, 66.2% had intermediate knowledge and 4.9% had good knowledge. About cesarean section, 24.9% had poor knowledge, 68.9% had intermediate knowledge and 6.2% had good knowledge. In addition, regarding the attitude towards natural childbirth, 2% had a neutral attitude, 98% had a positive attitude, and none of them had a negative attitude. Regarding the attitude towards cesarean section, 19.7% had a neutral attitude, 79.8% had a positive attitude and 0.5% had a negative attitude. In this study, there were significant relationships between mother's age (p = 0.049, r = 0.131), gestational age (p = 0.044, r = 0.129), number of pregnancy visits (p = 0.052, 0.119) r = and the degree of knowledge about cesarean section and also, there were significant relationships between location of residence (p = 0.048, r = 0.126), gestational age (p = 0.007, r = 0.613), level of education (p = 0.080,  r = 0.092), the number of pregnancy visits (p = 0.001, r = 0.034) and the attitude towards normal delivery. In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between sources of getting information (p = 0.014, r = 0.161), level of education (p = 0.000, r = 0.165) and attitudes toward cesarean section. In the present study, there was no statistically significant relationship between degree of knowledge about the type of delivery and attitudes toward the type of delivery.

Considering the positive attitude of pregnant women towards both natural childbirth and cesarean section, it seems that appropriate educational interventions along with empowerment programs can be effective in women's decision-making in choosing natural childbirth as the first preference for childbirth.