A Survey of Knowledge and Attitude of Pregnant Women About Delivery Methods

In Spite of the increasing rate of cesarean section and its public acceptance, many are not aware of its complications.

To provide information on pregnant women’s knowledge and attitude about vaginal versus abdominal delivery, we carried out the present study.

602 pregnant women attending at eight maternity centers and four private offices in Rasht in 2000 were selected randomly. A questionaire was provided by counseling with gynecologist. Its reliability was confirmed by test and retest. It was completed through interview. The survey showed that 4.2% of women had high knowledge (>80% correct answers), 62.7% of women have moderate knowledge (50-75% correct answers) and 33.7% had limited knowledge (<50% correct answers). 75.4% of women had positive attitude and 24.6% had negative attitude toward vaginal delivery, most of them were aware about pain after cesarean section (8.7%) and also high expenses (77.2%) and longer hospitalization (66.3%).

There was significant statistical relation between knowledge and marrital age (P<0.006), literacylevel (P<0.001), job (P<0.03) and family income (P<0.001).

Considering the low level of knowledge in the women it can be concluded that young people in the society need more training and education about this subject during the first various periods of reproductive life and education.