[The effect of husband's childbirth participation on perinatal couples' psychological responses]

The purpose of this study was to examine couples' psychological responses toward husband's childbirth participation over time and to confirm the function of the curtain in the delivery room. By a quasi-experimental and prospective longitudinal study, data were collected at three points of time from 73 couples who planned to deliver their first child at one medical center in southern Taiwan. The Zung's Self-rating Anxiety scale and Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale, the Chinese Health Questionnaire, a Social Support Scale, and the Postpartum Stress Scale were used. The two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to compare the means of psychological responses between experimental and control groups at each point in time. The level of wife's depression was influenced by the interaction of groups and times significantly. However, the main effect of husband's childbirth participation on couples' anxiety, depression, health status, social support and the wife's postpartum stress was not found and the limitations of the study were discussed.