Relationship of Psychological Factors in Pregnancy to Progress in Labor

Understanding the Health Beliefs of First Time Mothers Who Request Elective Cesarean Versus Mothers who Request Vaginal Delivery

“…While no studies were found that specifically examined the effects of maternal acceptance and adaptation to pregnancy in a maternal request for cesarean population, a large body of literature exists that links maternal acceptance and adaptation to pregnancy to positive perceptions of the birth experience (Fawcett & Knauth, 1996;Lederman et al, 1995;Mercer & Stainton, 1984). The findings in this study on maternal acceptance and adaptation to pregnancy add new information to the literature about the importance of maternal role acceptance and the perception of the birth experience of women requesting a cesarean delivery.…”

“…This control has been linked to improved learning and functioning on various tasks and decreased need for analgesia and anesthesia during childbirth, and is considered to be a key component of birth satisfaction (Lederman, Work, & McCann, 1995).…”

Conceptualizations, measurement, and effects of prenatal maternal stress on birth outcomes

“…Consistent with the notion that birth outcomes are affected both by biomedical and by psychosocial factors, medical risk and parity (whether or not a woman has given birth previously) are two of the most important biomedical predictors of birth outcome (Binsacca et al, 1987;Buescher et al, 1988;Cramer, 1987;Dott and Fort, 1975;Institute of Medicine, 1985;Shiono et al, 1986) and should therefore be controlled when examining the impact of prenatal stress on birth outcome. Some studies have used samples homogeneous in medical risk and parity to control for the effects of these characteristics (e.g., Bradley, 1983;Lederman et al, 1979;Levi et al, 1989;Picone et al, 1982). However, the results of such studies may not be generalizable to populations of different risk level or parity.…”

Experience of Delivery in Women with and without Antenatal Fear of Childbirth

“…Anxiety during gestation has been claimed to lead to negative conse quences for the outcome of pregnancy and for the well-being of the neonate [Ottinger and Simmons, 1964;McDonald, 1968;Gorsuch and Key, 1974;Lederman et al, 1979;Crandon, 1979a, b;Färber et al, 1981], An anxious pregnant woman may present to the obstetrician as a patient with a distinct symptom, i.e. a feeling of fear to give birth [Areskog et al, 1982b].…”