Assessment of Level of Knowledge on Childbirth and Fear of Childbirth among Pregnant Women

Objective: To determine level of knowledge on childbirth among pregnant women and assess the relationship between knowledge on childbirth and fear of childbirth. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on pregnant women who applied to Sakarya Training and Research Hospital from 15 December 2015 to 15 April 2016. Out of all pregnant women presented to the pregnancy follow-up polyclinic during the study, the study group consisted of 681 women who agreed to take part in the study (56%). A questionnaire was prepared based on the literature in line with the study objective and used to collect data. Questionnaires were completed by the pregnant women under supervision. Level of knowledge on childbirth was assessed with 30 information questions formulated based on literature. Each correct answer was assigned a score of 1 during the assessment. Scores to be obtained by women vary from 0 to 30. Higher scores denote to higher level of knowledge on childbirth. The WIJMA delivery expectancy/experience questionnaire version A was used to assess fear of childbirth. The data obtained was evaluated with the SPSS (version 21.0) statistical package program on computer. MannWhitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman's correlation analysis were used for the analyses. Statistical significance was accepted as p< 0.05. Results: The age of the women in the study group ranged from 17 to 42, with a mean age of 27.53 +/- 5.66 years. While the most accurately answered question on childbirth was "It is important to provide women with emotional and physical support to experience an easier delivery", the least accurately answered question was "Vaginal birth is not possible after Caesarean section". The scores obtained by pregnant women from the information questions on childbirth ranged between 7 and 27, with a median score of 19.0. Our study revealed higher level of knowledge on childbirth among women aged 25 years and over, whose educational level is secondary school and above, who are actively engaged in a revenue-generating business, who have a high family income, who are not smoker or alcohol consumer, who have no history of a physician-diagnosed disease requiring regular use of medication, who had regular menstruation before pregnancy, who got pregnant twice, who are supported by their spouse during pregnancy, who have a history of watching childbirth, who gave birth with Caesarean section previously, who had no health issue in previous delivery, who have a healthcare professional as a family member, and who were informed about childbirth previously (p< 0.05 for each). There is a very weak relationship between level of knowledge on childbirth and fear of childbirth among pregnant women (p< 0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that level of knowledge on childbirth is low among pregnant women. It can be suggested that women with high level of knowledge on childbirth have less fear of childbirth to some extent. It would be advantageous to perform activities to inform pregnant women on childbirth. It is clear that more extensive studies are required to establish the relationship between level of knowledge on childbirth and fear of childbirth.