Abstract
The Effect of Relaxation on Reducing Anxiety and Choosing the Type of Delivery in Prim Parous Women
Author(s): Soheila Gaini, Nemat Sotoudeh Asl*, Ameneh Moazedian and Shahrokh Makvand HosseiniObjective: The rate of cesarean section in industrialized and developing countries including our country has an increasing trend an important factor of which is anxiety about natural childbirth. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of relaxation on reducing anxiety and choosing the type of delivery in prim parous women in Karaj.
Methods: In this interventional study, 86 primiparous women in Shahid Madani Hospital in Karaj were selected using purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (48 in each group). Spiel Berger manifest anxiety questionnaire and researcher-made test for choosing the type of delivery in pre-test and post-test were taken from both groups. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPSS19 and Covariance analysis method.
Results: Anxiety score in pregnant women under intervention was 82/7 ± 3/13 before the study and reached 61/23 ± 6/43 after the study. Paired T-Test showed that this decrease was significant (P<0.001). Despite the increased interest in choosing a normal delivery in the experimental group, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of choosing the type of delivery (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that relaxation as a non-pharmacological method has a significant effect on reducing delivery anxiety, but has no significant effect on the choice of natural childbirth and it seems that the choice of natural childbirth by primparous women requires more measures. This study suggests the use of relaxation in reducing anxiety and taking further measures to select the type of delivery in the care and counseling program during pregnancy of nulliparous women.