Abstract
BackgroundPrevious research suggests that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, less extraverted, and less agreeable women tend to suffer from higher fear of childbirth and experience their delivery as worse. Moreover, there is evidence that birth characteristics and unexpected incidents during delivery may impact women’s birth experiences. However, it remains unknown whether the role of personality in subjective birth experiences varies between women with different birth characteristics.MethodsWe used data from the Maternal Anxiety in Relation to Infant Development (MARI) Study, a regional-epidemiological study among pregnant women, who were prospectively followed up in multiple waves across the peripartum period. During pregnancy, personality was assessed with the short version of the Big Five Inventory. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/ Experience Questionnaire was used to measure fear of childbirth (version A) during pregnancy and subjective birth experiences (version B) within the first 10 days after delivery.ResultsLinear regressions revealed that lower levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and extraversion predicted higher fear of childbirth during pregnancy. Moreover, personality affected subjective birth experiences especially in women with specific birth characteristics: Lower emotional stability predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with (vs. without) a preterm delivery, and higher conscientiousness predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with an emergency cesarean section (vs. spontaneous delivery). Subjective birth experiences were also worse in less emotionally stable and less open women with (general) anesthesia (vs. no anesthesia) during delivery. Finally, higher emotional stability predicted a subjective birth experience that was worse than expected, particularly in multiparous women and women without anesthesia during delivery.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, and less open women tend to experience their delivery as worse particularly in case of unexpected incidents (i.e., preterm delivery, emergency cesarean section, and necessity of anesthetics) and might thus profit from early targeted interventions.
Highlights
Giving birth to a child belongs to the most striking experiences in life
Linear regressions revealed that lower levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and extraversion predicted higher fear of childbirth during pregnancy
Higher emotional stability predicted a subjective birth experience that was worse than expected, in multiparous women and women without anesthesia during delivery. These findings suggest that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, and less open women tend to experience their delivery as worse in case of unexpected incidents and might profit from early targeted interventions
Summary
Giving birth to a child belongs to the most striking experiences in life. many pregnant women suffer from severe fear of childbirth (FOC) and experience their delivery in very different ways, depending on their personality, previous life and birth experiences, the pregnancy, and the circumstances of birth [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Adverse subjective birth experiences have been associated with postpartum mental health problems (e.g., post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms and disorders) [13,14,15,16,17]. These problems may impair women’s subjective well-being and their social relationships (e.g., to their infant [18] and partner [16]) and increase the risk of developmental problems in the offspring [19,20,21]. It remains unknown whether the role of personality in subjective birth experiences varies between women with different birth characteristics.
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