Pregnant women’s preference for vaginal or caesarean childbirth

Authors

  • Lígia Ebner Melchiori
  • Ana Cláudia Bortolozzi Maia UNESP-BAURU
  • Rita Nathalia Bredariolli
  • Raquel Ishikawa Hory

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v13i1.9858

Keywords:

vaginal birth, caesarean section, pregnancy, health psychology

Abstract

The study investigated the preference for delivery in 40 pregnant women using a semi-structured interview. Most women (75%) reported a preference for vaginal delivery, mainly because they believe it will result in a speedy recovery and be better for them and/or their babies. Of the women interviewed, 15% preferred a caesarean section because they considered it be less painful. These preferences, in general, were influenced by friends. Most women said they had fear of parturition due to: feelings of pain/suffering, concern of something happening to them or their babies and because the situation is unknown or assessed in a negative fashion. The presence of trusted people, like one’s husband, mother or doctor, could minimize this fear. These results reinforce the contributions of health professionals, such as psychologists, in answering the psychosocial needs of pregnant women in situations of delivery and birth.

 

Keywords: vaginal birth; caesarean section; pregnancy; health psychology.

Author Biography

Ana Cláudia Bortolozzi Maia, UNESP-BAURU

Psicóloga. Mestre em Educação Especial (UFSCar); Doutora em Educação (UNESP, Marília). Docente do Curso de Formação Psicólogos e Pós-Graduação e Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e da Aprendizagem, UNESP, Bauru. Líder do Grupo Sexualidade, Educação e Cultura.

Downloads

Published

2009-10-29

How to Cite

Melchiori, L. E., Maia, A. C. B., Bredariolli, R. N., & Hory, R. I. (2009). Pregnant women’s preference for vaginal or caesarean childbirth. Interação Em Psicologia, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v13i1.9858

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2009)

Section

Articles

License

The approval of articles implies the immediate acceptance, with no imposition, that the journal Interação em Psicologia will have the exclusivity of the first publication of the article. The authors will, notwithstanding, keep the copyrights for future publications. In case of republication of the articles in other media, it is demanded the mention to the first publication in the journal Interação em Psicologia. The authors also authorize their articles to be available in all the indexes of which the journal is included. 

The Editorial Board is not responsible for the concepts or statements expressed in the published works, which are the sole responsibility of their authors.

The journal Interação em Psicologia offers immediate open access to all its content, following the rationale that offering gratuitous scientific knowledge to the public promotes the democracy of knowledge and published works tend to produce higher impact. The published articles in the journal are available under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). According to this license, the access, distribution, reusing of the articles for non-commercial sources are allowed, provided that the authors and the source is referenced. When submitting articles to the journal Interação em Psicologia, authors agree with making their texts legally available based on this license.