BackgroundPrevious research has reported that women who are admitted to delivery wards in early labour process before an active stage of labour has started run an increased risk of instrumental deliveries. Therefore, it is essential to focus on factors such as self-efficacy that can enhance a woman’s own ability to cope with the first stage of labour. However, there was no Swedish instrument measuring childbirth self-efficacy available. Thus, the aim of the study was to translate the Childbirth Self-efficacy Inventory and to psychometrically test the Swedish version on first- time mothers within the Swedish culture.MethodsThe method included a forward-backward translation with face and content validity. The psychometric properties were evaluated using a Principal Component Analysis and by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and inter-item correlations. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used to describe and compare the scales. All data were collected from January 2011 to June 2012, from 406 pregnant women during the gestational week 35-42.ResultsThe Swedish version of the Childbirth Self-Efficacy Inventory indicated good reliability and the Principal Component Analysis showed a three-component structure. The Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test indicated that the women could differentiate between the concepts outcome expectancy and self-efficacy expectatancy and between the two labour stages, active stage and the second stage of labour.ConclusionsThe Swedish version of Childbirth Self-efficacy Inventory is a reliable and valid instrument. The inventory can act as a tool to identify those women who need extra support and to evaluate the efforts of improving women’s self-efficacy during pregnancy.

The use of an app should be considered as a useful information and communication technology innovation that can improve communication and accessibility for older people with home-based health care.

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