Researcher Says Confidence Is One Key To Easier Labor And Childbirth.

2001 MAY 24 - (NewsRx Network) -- A pregnant woman's fears of childbirth may play a role in how she will handle labor and delivery. a new study suggests.

An Ohio State University researcher found that among first-time mothers, less confident women had a greater fear of labor and birth than did women who scored high on confidence and self-esteem tests. Women who reported low confidence were so anxious about the event that they often felt incapable of using relaxation and breathing techniques that would make labor more bearable.

"Most women fear childbirth to some extent," said Nancy Lowe, author of the study and an associate professor of nursing at Ohio State. "Fear of the unknown is normal, and a little anxiety may help women mentally prepare for the event. But when a woman has high fear and low self confidence, she starts to doubt her ability to give birth. Women with poor self-esteem don't have the same confidence in their inner resources and also have less well-developed coping mechanisms."

She evaluated 280 women during the third trimester of their first pregnancy. All women were enrolled in childbirth education classes in central Ohio. Each woman answered a series of questionnaires measuring her overall self-confidence and self-esteem. Each subject also answered a specially designed questionnaire that measured her beliefs and attitudes toward labor and delivery.

Reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lowe said she found that a woman's beliefs about the value of certain behaviors to help women cope with labor and birth had no relationship to her own fear of childbirth. In other words, while a woman may believe that relaxation would reduce pain during labor, she may feel incapable of relaxing her body, Lowe said. But the greater her confidence in her ability to use behaviors to cope with her own birth experience, the lower her fear.

Lowe wanted a better idea of what made some women more fearful about birth than other women. She separated ...