Prenatal depression, fear of childbirth, expectations, neonatal outcomes and childbirth experiences among Primigravida women: a longitudinal prospective study.

Prenatal depression, fear of childbirth, expectations, neonatal outcomes and childbirth experiences among Primigravida women: a longitudinal prospective study.

Background: The childbirth experiences are multi factorial. Different variables are responsible tin evaluations of childbirth experiences, including midwifery support, duration of labour pain, involvement and participation in labour, invasive labour process. Despite the improvement of maternity care, fear of childbirth is common problem during pregnancy. Satisfaction of birth is also associated with women’s emotional aspect. Prenatal depression has some adverse effect on newborn including preterm birth and low birth weight. Women have positive experiences if their expectations during childbirth are met. The early the women see, hold their newborn after delivery the more positive birth experience could be seen among them. Childbirth fear is considered as a reason for the increase in the number of women requesting elective caesarean section.  Women who delivered by caesarean section were less likely to feed their newborns shortly after delivery and reported less positive birth experiences. (p <0.001). There is little investigation in the field of birth experience and neonatal outcome. Longitudinal study may identify predictors of childbirth experience to provide useful information to health care providers and policy makers that promote positive childbirth experiences. Aim: To assess the status of prenatal depression, fear of childbirth, expectations, neonatal outcomes and childbirth experience. Methodology: Type of study- Institutional based descriptive observational study. Study design: Longitudinal prospective study.Study area: OPD of Obstetrical Dept. and Postnatal ward of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal. Study population: Primigravida. Research variables: - Prenatal depression, fear of childbirth, expectation, neonatal outcome, Childbirth experience. Socio demographic variable: Age, occupation, monthly income, education, gestational age, mode of delivery, duration of labour, delivery conducted by. Sampling technique: Systematic random sampling. Sample size: 425 Expected outcomes: Different responsible factors for childbirth experience and their role will be identified. At present there are no guidelines to evaluate or treat pregnant women who suffer from prenatal depression, childbirth fear or to assess their expectations. Until such guidelines are developed, findings from this study can help health care providers identify and address specific expectations, depression and childbirth fear, neonatal outcomes and understand how those factors relate to satisfaction with care.