Attitude of primiparous women towards their preference for delivery method: a qualitative content analysis

The delivery method is one of the primary concerns of primiparous women. Today, due to the fear of delivery, the number of cesarean sections has increased significantly. Considering the importance of choosing the type of delivery and the lack of study in this regard, the present study was conducted to explain the attitude of primiparous women towards their preference for delivery method.

In this qualitative study, in-depth interview was conducted with 12 primiparous women. The transcripts of the interviews were read carefully by the researcher for several times. Finally, using the analytical method, the codes were extracted and subsequent subcategories and main categories were determined. To assess the credibility of the data, the Denzin & Lincoln's criteria were used, which include Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and Confirmability.

Because of inexperience in delivery and ambiguity in process, most of the woman had a specific fear and they commonly affected by other advices and experiences. The majority of the participants had desire to vaginal delivery with announcing its advantages such as shortage of pain process, easy breast feeding, and mother ability to better carryout the newborn works. Other participants believed on adverse effects of normal vaginal delivery including bladder prolapse, uterus rupture, and probability of experience of both happenings (CS and NVD), frequent examination, pain and urine incontinence. Some stated cesarean section have benefits of less injury to neonate and preserving her/his beauty.

Results showed that, choosing a delivery method is difficult for primiparous women, and their attitude toward the type of delivery is influenced by subjective and internal factors. Giving awareness to primiparous women greatly enhances their tendency towards vaginal delivery.