Li RX, Asgharvahedi F, Khajehei M. Prevalence of fear of childbirth, its risk factors and birth outcomes in Australian multiparous women. World J Obstet Gynecol 2025; 14(1): 102334 [DOI: 10.5317/wjog.v14.i1.102334]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marjan Khajehei, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Newborn Health, Westmead Hospital, Room 3042, Westmead 2145, Australia. marjan.khajehei@health.nsw.gov.au
Research Domain of This Article
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Article-Type of This Article
Prospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Obstet Gynecol. Jan 18, 2025; 14(1): 102334 Published online Jan 18, 2025. doi: 10.5317/wjog.v14.i1.102334
Prevalence of fear of childbirth, its risk factors and birth outcomes in Australian multiparous women
Rui-Xin Li, Farnoosh Asgharvahedi, Marjan Khajehei
Rui-Xin Li, Department of Women’s and Newborn Health, Westmead Hospital, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia
Farnoosh Asgharvahedi, Marjan Khajehei, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia
Marjan Khajehei, Department of Women’s and Newborn Health, Westmead Hospital, Westmead 2145, Australia
Marjan Khajehei, Westemad Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia
Marjan Khajehei, School of Women’s and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia
Author contributions: Khajehei M designed the overall concept of the research, conducted data analysis; Khajehei M and Asgharvahedi F contributed to the ethics preparation, submission and approval; Li RX and Asgharvahedi F contributed to data collection; Li RX and Khajehei M wrote the draft of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript before submission.
Institutional review board statement: This study received full ethical approval from Western Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee prior to its commencement (HREC Ref: 2019/ETH09781).
Informed consent statement: The women signed the written consent forms before participating in the study. No identifiable data have been presented. The study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki for the recruitment of human participants, study conduct and dissemination of results.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Data sharing statement: Statistical code and dataset are available from the corresponding author at Marjan.khajehei@health.nsw.gov.au.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marjan Khajehei, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Newborn Health, Westmead Hospital, Room 3042, Westmead 2145, Australia. marjan.khajehei@health.nsw.gov.au
Received: October 15, 2024 Revised: December 18, 2024 Accepted: January 9, 2025 Published online: January 18, 2025 Processing time: 93 Days and 22.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Fear of childbirth (FoC) is a widespread issue that impacts the health and well-being of mothers and newborns. However, there is inconsistency regarding the prevalence of FoC in the and there is limited research on the prevalence of FoC among Australian pregnant women.
AIM
To investigate the prevalence of FoC, its risk factors and birth outcomes in Australian multiparous women.
METHODS
In this prospective cohort quantitative study, 212 multiparous women were recruited from antenatal clinics at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney from 2019 to 2022. Pregnant women who attended antenatal visits and met the inclusion criteria signed the consent forms and completed several online questionnaires at baseline. After they gave birth, their birth outcomes were collected from the hospital’s medical record database. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive statistics, χ2 test, independent samples t-test, and multivariable logistic regression analysis.
RESULTS
Out of 212 participants, 24% experienced a high level of FoC and 7% experienced severe FoC. The χ2 test results revealed that a family income of ≤ $100000, no alcohol intake during pregnancy, pre-existing health problems, previous caesarean section (emergency or planned), and previous neutral/traumatic childbirth experiences were significantly associated with higher levels of FoC (P < 0.05). Other risk factors included being moderately to very worried and fearful about the upcoming birth, having severe to extremely severe anxiety throughout pregnancy, and expressing low relationship satisfaction. According to multivariable logistic regression, the odds of a high level of FoC were higher in women with anxiety, a history of traumatic childbirth experience, a history of sexual assault during childhood, pre-existing health problems, and lower relationship satisfaction (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
High-severe levels of FoC are experienced by pregnant multiparous women and are affected by several demographic factors. However, due to the small sample size in the present study, further studies with larger sample sizes are required to draw a firm conclusion on the prevalence of severe FoC among multiparous women and its associated risk factors and birth outcomes.
Core Tip: High-severe levels of fear of childbirth are common in pregnant multiparous women, are associated with several demographics and psychosocial factors and can affect birth outcomes. It is essential to develop customized maternity care and prenatal education programs in maternity facilities. To empower and support women and improve perinatal outcomes, their unique needs must be recognized, and assistance in coping with fear and anxiety must be made available in a way that contributes to a positive pregnancy experience.
