Childbirth education, maternal attitudes, and delivery

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a childbirth education program (patterned after the Lamaze procedure) on maternal attitudes and the delivery process. Dependent variables included axniety as measured by the anxiety scale of the IPAT, scores on the Maternal Attitudes to Pregnancy Inventory (MAPI), the duration of labor, and the amounts of premedication and anesthesia administered during delivery. Three groups of pregnant women were used as subjects: 70 primiparous and 48 multiparous women taking a 6 week childbirth education course and 41 multiparous women delivery at the same hospitals but not taking the course. In addition the data on labor duration and amount of medication administered to 1,400 multiparous and 1,015 primiparous patients delivery at one of the same hospitals as the other three groups were examined for comparison purposes. No differences were found between groups on the anxiety measure or on duration of labor. Some differences favoring women who had the childbirth education course were found on the MAPI and the medication and anesthesia measures. It was concluded that the childbirth education course had some beneficial effects.