Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Nenko, Ilona
• Kopeć-Godlewska, Katarzyna
• Towner, Mary C
• Klein, Laura D
• Micek, Agnieszka

Titel

Emotional factors, medical interventions and mode of birth among low-risk primiparous women in Poland

Ist Teil von

• Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2023-01, Vol.11 (1), p.139-148

Ort / Verlag

US: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract Background and objectives Birth is a critical event in women’s lives. Since humans have evolved to give birth in the context of social support, not having it in modern settings might lead to more complications during birth. Our aim was to model how emotional factors and medical interventions related to birth outcomes in hospital settings in Poland, where c-section rates have doubled in the last decade. Methodology We analysed data from 2363 low-risk primiparous women who went into labor with the intention of giving birth vaginally. We used a model comparison approach to examine the relationship between emotional and medical variables and birth outcome (vaginal or c-section), including sociodemographic control variables in all models. Results A model with emotional factors better explained the data than a control model (ΔAIC = 470.8); women with continuous personal support during labor had lower odds of a c-section compared to those attended by hospital staff only (OR = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.09 − 0.16). A model that included medical interventions also better explained the data than a control model (ΔAIC = 133.6); women given epidurals, in particular, had increased odds of a c-section over those who were not (OR = 3.55, 95% CI = 2.95 − 4.27). The best model included variables for both the level of personal support and the use of epidural (ΔAIC = 598.0). Conclusions and implications Continuous personal support during childbirth may be an evolutionarily informed strategy for reducing complications, including one of the most common obstetrical complications in modern hospital settings, the c-section. Lay Summary Humans evolved to give birth in the context of social support. A lack of support and also medical interventions in hospital settings may increase obstetric complications, including c-sections. Among first-time Polish mothers, continuous personal support during childbirth reduced the risk of a c-section, while epidural use increased the risk