Pnm-16: The Effect of Childbirth Preparation Classes on Delivery Outcome

Background: Childbirth education has existed as a formal structure and has provided preparation for childbirth with a focus on natural birth. Over time, the classes have continued to evolve but the underlying purpose remains the same: to provide prenatal preparation for pregnancy, labor and birth. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of antenatal preparation for child birth courses on delivery outcome. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study. 600 pregnant women who attend the antenatal clinic at Al-Zahra Hospital, Rasht, were assigned randomly to either on experimental or control group. Experimental group was trained both theoretically and practically for eight sessions while 300 pregnant women in control group received standard antenatal care. The following criteria were used to select the study sample: Iranian pregnant women who primiparas,18-35years old, over 20 weeks of pregnancy, with no medical problems, with no multiple pregnancies, not smoking, and not threatened to abortion in their history and the fetus had vertex presentation. Women in both groups were followed until their delivery and then, the deliveries between them were investigated by using SPSS software. Results: There were no significant differences in sociodemographics and obstetrics characteristics (p>0.05). The rate of vaginal delivery in experimental group (62.5%) was significantly higher than control group (47.3%) in Chi-squared test. Moreover, duration of active labor and the second stage of it were shorter in trained women (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our findings suggested that educating pregnant women about labor and delivery may result in increasing the rate of natural delivery. Thus, implementing this program as a continuous intervention during pregnancy is recommended.