The effect of companion training based on Bandura's theory on maternal self-efficacy during childbirth in Mashhad, 2018

Self-efficacy during pregnancy is a self-assessment of one's ability to manage stress and perform important behaviors, especially in coping with pain. Women who benefit from the support of others during pregnancy feel more self-efficacious. The studiesshow that involving family members in education, support or presence during pregnancy has contradictory consequences. This study was therefore conducted with the aim of determining the effect of an accompanying training programme based on Bandura's theory on the mother's self-efficacy during childbirth.

This RCT was conducted on 60 primiparous mothers between 20 and 23 weeks of gestation who were admitted to Umm al-Banin Hospital in Mashhad and were randomly assigned to two intervention and control groups. The control group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of oral and practical training. In addition to these sessions, training sessions based on Bandura's theory were held for the intervention group, includingtwo sessions of companions and pregnant mothers together and two sessionsalone. A demographic questionnaire and a Childbirth Self-Efficacy Inventory (CBSEI, Lowe, 1993) were completed by both groups before and immediately after the training. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests, paired t-tests, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon in SPSS 16 software. A significance level of less than 0.05 was considered.

The average age of the mothers in the intervention group was 26.7±8.3 years and in the control group 28.3±5.9 years. In most cases, the mother 's companion was her sister (73.3%). Before the training, the mean value of self-efficacy was 82.5±22.3 in the intervention group and 87.5±32.4 in the control group (P = 0.492, independent t-test). After the training, the mean value of self-efficacy was 132.4±18.5 in the intervention group and 115.2±26.4 in the control group (P=0.006, Mann-Whitney test). Self-efficacy after the intervention compared to before increased by 49.9±31.3 in the intervention group and by 27.7±29.5 in the control group (P=0.007, Mann-Whitney test). In intragroup comparison, the difference between the intervention group after and before the training was significant (P<0.001, Wilcoxon test). The difference between before and after the training was also significant in the control group (P<0.001, paired t-test).

Companion training based on Bandura's theory has an effect on the self-efficacy of pregnant women during childbirth and is recommended as a training method for childbirth preparation.