The Influence Of Fear During Pregnancy, Labour And Delivery On Birth Outcome Among Post Delivery Women In Zanzibar

ABSTRACT

Background: Assessing the influence of fear during pregnancy, labour and delivery on birth outcome among women is very important. Normally women experience happiness, satisfaction and self-fulfilment but some may feel some changes and may develop fear which maycause maternal and neonatal complications.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the influence of fear during pregnancy, labour and delivery on birth outcome among post-delivery women in Zanzibar.

Methods: This was a matched case-control study involving 204 post-delivery women who were randomly selected from 4 ? selected hospital in Zanzibar. Cases (n=68) were those who had the undesirable birth outcome among others including birth asphyxia, C/Sand fetal distress. while control (n = 136) were those who had desirable birth outcome, that is normal birth outcome for both mother and baby. Comparing groups mean, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were conducted and t-test, chi-square, and odds ratio were reported.

Results: The results show that there was no significant difference between cases and control in all demographic variables. Among all cases (n=68), 17 (25%) had the highest level of fear during pregnancy compared to the control in which among all control (n=136), only 24 (17.65%) had the highest level of fear. During labour, 13 (19.12%) of cases had the highest level of fear while in control 27 (19.85%) had the highest level of fear. And during delivery ), 19 (27.94%) of cases had the highest level of fear while in control only 22 (16.18%) had the highest level of fear. The t-test results showed no significant difference in fear mean score between cases and control during pregnancy and labour, but there was a significant mean score difference during deliver (p < 0.001). Fear during delivery was significantly associated with the type of job (p=0.0005) and information refactor (p=