Prevalence of fear of childbirth, its risk factors and birth outcomes in Australian multiparous women

Table 5 Comparison of birth outcome in women with low–moderate fear of childbirth and women with high–severe fear of childbirth, mean ± SD/ median (25^th-75^th percentiles)¹

Variable	Low-moderate FoC (n = 133)	High-severe FoC (n = 62)	RR (95%CI)	P value
Maternal
Epidural/spinal				0.204
No	61/94 (65%)	19/36 (53%)	0.70 (0.40–1.21)
Yes	33/94 (35%)	17/36 (47%)	1.16 (0.92–1.46)
Episiotomy3				0.576
No	80/94 (85%)	32/36 (89%)	1.29 (0.52–3.20)
Yes	14/94 (15%)	4/36 (11%)	0.92 (0.70–1.21)
Third- or fourth-degree tear3				1.000
No	92/94 (98%)	36/36 (100%)
Yes	2/94 (2%)	0
Mode of birth
Normal vaginal delivery	87 (59%)	34 (52%)	0.83 (0.55–1.24)	0.351
Instrumental	7 (5%)	2 (3%)	0.72 (0.21–2.47)	0.7252
Caesarean section	39 (27%)	26 (40%)	1.51 (1.01–2.52)	0.050
Cumulative blood loss (range 50-6500 millilitres)	300 (200–400)	300 (235–400)		0.365
Total duration of labour (range 1-26.4 hours)3	2.3 (2.3–3.6)	1.2 (0.1–3.5)		0.684
Length of postnatal hospital stay (range 4-163 hours)	45.5 (24–72)	43.5 (24–60)		0.855
Neonatal
Gestational age at birth (range 252-42.0 weeks)	38.9 ± 2.1	38.7 ± 1.5	-0.17 (-0.75-0.41)	0.559
Apgar score at 5 minutes (range 1-9)	8.8 ± 0.9	8.9 ± 0.5	0.09 (-0.16–0.34)	0.467
Birth weight (range 800-4685 g)	3291.2 ± 550.9	3333.3 ± 614.5	42.04 (-131.4-215.5)	0.633
Resuscitation after birth				0.716
No	106 (80%)	48 (77%)	0.91 (0.56–1.48)
Yes	27 (20%)	14 (23%)	1.05 (0.82–1.34)
SCN/NICU admission after birth				0.006
No	119 (90%)	46 (74%)	0.52 (0.35–0.79)
Yes	14 (11%)	16 (27%)	1.55 (1.04–2.29)
Received infant formula during hospital stay				0.273
No	87/123 (71%)	35/56 (63%)	0.78 (0.50–1.21)
Yes	36/123 (29%)	21/56 (38%)	1.13 (0.90–1.42)

¹Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

²Fisher’s exact test.

³Excluding caesarean section births.

RR: Relative risk; SCN: Special care nursery; NICU: Neonatal intensive unit; FoC: Fear of childbirth.