Attitude of Pregnant Women and Health Personnel toward Normal Delivery Vs Cesarean Section

Ceasarean section (CS) has increased in rate during the past years. Due to postoperative complications, long recovery time and high costs of surgery, normal delivery is recommended as a routine method. Regarding the increase in the number of CS and its acceptability on the part of the public, it seems that women’s as well as health personnel's attitudes play an effective role in selecting the termination method. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare pregnant women’s and health personnel's attitude toward termination procedures. This was a descriptive and comparative study. 84 health personnels and 300 pregnant women who referred to Ardabil health centers in 2002 were selected. These subject's attitudes were collected through Likert questionnaire and the collected data were analyzed by SPSS, using t-test. The findings showed that 30.1% of women and 50% of health personnels had positive attitudes towards normal delivery. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference between pregnant women and health personnels in their attitudes toward normal delivery and cesarean (p=0.001). Since health personnels had a more positive attitude towards normal delivery than pregnant women did, it seems that the young as well as the pregnant individuals in society need more education and awareness to be able to change their attitudes towards delivery methods. Health personnel, due to their high positive attitude towards normal delivery, can play a more beneficial role in this regard.