Background and aims: Increasing the number of elective caesarean section in Iran caused by several factors including fear of normal delivery that is psychological factor. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between triple dimensions (Subjective, psychological and spiritual) of well-being in prediction of fear of normal delivery in pregnant women.
Methods: This research method was descriptive and correlational. The research sample included178 pregnant women that referred to the clinic of two hospitals in Tehran with two tendencies of normal delivery and caesarean for childbirth, and were selected by convenient sampling. Participants completed the spiritual well-being scale, subjective well-being scale, psychological well-being index and researcher made questionnaire of fear of childbirth. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression analysis.
Results: The results showed negative significant correlation between spiritual well-being, religious and existential well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect and psychological well-being with fear of normal delivery in pregnant women and positive significant correlation between negative affect and fear of childbirth (P≤0.01). Results also showed that existential well-being has negative significant role in predicting the fear of normal delivery. The final research model explains significantly 9% of variance of fear of normal delivery.
Conclusion: From correlation between fear of normal delivery with the subjective, psychological and spiritual well-being in pregnant women, it can be concluded the increasing of satisfaction with life, positive affect and enriching the existential and religious beliefs in pregnant women can reduce their tendency for caesarean section and increase their readiness for selecting normal delivery
