Fear of Childbirth and Associated Factors Among Pregnant Mothers Who Attend Antenatal Care Service at Jinka Public Health Facilities, Jinka Town, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

BACKGROUNDWomen face many challenges from conception to postpartum, and fear of childbirth is one of the challenges the women encounter during pregnancy. This could have resulted from different perspectives and it could in turn lead to various pregnancy and childbirth problems. Thus, understanding childbirth fear and factors associated with this is of paramount importance and this study was aimed at addressing this issue.METHODOLOGYA facility-based cross-sectional study was done on 423 pregnant mothers who came for antenatal care services at Jinka hospital and Jinka health center. The study was conducted from June 1to 30, 2018. The sample size was calculated using the single population proportion formula and samples were taken after proportional allocation was done for the hospital and health center using the proportion allocation formula. Individual participants were selected with a systematic sampling technique using k-value of 2 for both the hospital and health center and the first participant was selected by the lottery method from the first two samples. Data were entered into epi-data version 3.1.1. and exported into statistical packages for social sciences version 21.0 for cleaning and further analysis. The level of significance was declared at a p value of less than 0.05 in multivariable logistic regression model. Narratives, figures, and tables were used to put the result.RESULTFrom 423 samples, two of the questionnaires were incomplete and thus 421 were used for analysis giving a response rate of 99.5%. Around a quarter of 102 (24.2%) mothers had fear of childbirth and the remaining 319 (75.8%) had no fear of childbirth. From the factors under consideration, history of previous pregnancy complications, previous history of labor and delivery complications, educational status, and depression status were significantly associated with a mother’s fear of childbirth.CONCLUSIONEven though it is physiological to have some fear of childbirth, the figure obtained is relatively higher. Factors found to have a significant effect on childbirth fear are those which could be tackled through improved health literacy and integrated maternal health services.

Longitudinal functional status trajectories and its predictors among postpartum women with and without maternal morbidities in Northwest Ethiopia: a group based multi-trajectory modelling

“…This 33-item rating scale has a 6-point Likert scale as a response format, ranging from ‘not at all’ (0) to ‘extremely’ (=5), yielding a score range between 0 and 165. The W-DEQ was validated and previously used in Ethiopia, and its internal consistency and split-half reliability were checked with the Cronbach’s α score of 0.932 32 33. A score of ≥85 was considered to have FOC for this study 32 33…”

“…The W-DEQ was validated and previously used in Ethiopia, and its internal consistency and split-half reliability were checked with the Cronbach’s α score of 0.932 32 33. A score of ≥85 was considered to have FOC for this study 32 33…”

Impact of maternal morbidities on the longitudinal health-related quality of life trajectories among women who gave childbirth in four hospitals of Northwest Ethiopia: a group-based trajectory modelling study

“…The W-DEQ has been designed especially to measure fear of childbirth operationalised by the cognitive appraisal of the delivery. The internal consistency and split-half reliability of the W-DEQ was checked in previous studies in Ethiopia with the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.932 31 32. A score of ≥85 was considered to have fear of childbirth for this study 31 32…”

“…The internal consistency and split-half reliability of the W-DEQ was checked in previous studies in Ethiopia with the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.932 31 32. A score of ≥85 was considered to have fear of childbirth for this study 31 32…”

Longitudinal mediation analysis of the factors associated with trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among postpartum women in Northwest Ethiopia: Application of the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method

“…The Internal consistency and split-half reliability of the W-DEQ was checked in previous studies in Ethiopia with the Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.932 (54, 55). A score of ≥ 85 was considered to have fear of child birth for this study [ 54 , 55 ].…”