Prevalence and factors affecting the negative childbirth experiences: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Childbirth and its related experiences have the potential physical and psychological effects on women’s lives in the short and long term. Many factors play an effective role in the positive and negative childbirth experiences of the mother. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and factors affecting negative labor experiences.Methods: The current research reviewed articles related to “childbirth experiences” in international databases (Pub Med – Scopus – Web of Science – Ovid – clinical key – ProQuest – ScienceDirect – the Cochrane Library), and national databases (SID, Magiran, Iranmedex, and Irandoc). A total number of 3654 articles were found after the elimination of repetitive and unrelated articles, 18 articles were evaluated.Result: In this study, 18 studies entered this systematic review, 8 studies examined the prevalence of childbirth experience. The prevalence of negative childbirth experience was 6.8–44%. The factors related to the childbirth experience includes: individual, such as age, parity, fear, self-efficacy, participation, control, expectations, preparation, and interpersonal, such as husband support, care provider support, unexpected medical problems, such as prolonged labor, stimulation and induction, forceps delivery, emergency cesarean section, and the use of analgesics in the mother, low Apgar score and transfer to the NICU in the child.Conclusions: This review showed the varies factors related to childbirth experience, these findings suggest future research through qualitative studies that why they influence the birth experience.