Italian women’s childbirth: a prospective longitudinal study of delivery predictors and subjective experience

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that negative childbirth expectations adversely influence perinatal outcomes.\r\nThe current research builds on this with Italian mothers-to-be.\r\nObjective: The present study (1) explored the influence of cognitive and emotional variables on labour and delivery outcomes and (2)\r\nexamined how individual characteristics, couple adjustment, and medical factors influence the childbirth experience. Method: 121\r\nItalian primiparous women participated in a prospective longitudinal study where participants completed a set of questionnaires between\r\nthe 32nd and 37th week of pregnancy and again 30–40 days postdelivery.\r\nResults: Binary logistic regression analyses revealed that women with negative childbirth expectations were three times\r\nmore likely to experience an emergency C-section or an instrumental vaginal delivery. Furthermore, childbirth expectations predicted\r\nsubjective birth experience. This relationship between expectations and delivery type and the subjective childbirth experience was\r\nweak while other variables (such as anxiety, depression, couple adjustment) did not significantly influence delivery type or the\r\nsubjective childbirth experience. Conclusions: The weak relationship between childbirth expectations and perinatal outcomes renders it\r\nnecessary to question the nature of the relationship found in previous research, especially considering inconsistencies of the literature on\r\nthe subject. The current research makes it clear that further research is needed to understand better the relationship between expectations\r\nand perinatal outcomes in order to better improve the well-being of mothers-to-be during labour and delivery.