The association of birth model with resilience variables and birth experience: Home versus hospital birth

Abstract

Objectiveto study home, natural hospital, and medical hospital births, and the association of these birth models to resilience and birth experience. Designcross-section retrospective design. Settingparticipants were recruited via an online survey system. Invitations to participate were posted in five different Internet forums for women on maternity leave, from September 2014 to August 2015. Participantsthe sample comprised 381 post partum healthy women above the age of 20, during their maternity leave. Of the participants: 22% gave birth at home, 32% gave birth naturally in a hospital, and 46% of the participants had a medical birth at the hospital. Measurementslife Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R), General Self-Efficacy Scale, Sense of Mastery Scale, Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). Findingswomen having had natural births, whether at home or at the hospital, significantly differed from women having had medical births in all aspects of the birth experience, even when controlling for age and optimism. Birth types contributed to between 14% and 24% of the explained variance of the various birth experience aspects. Key conclusionshome and natural hospital births were associated with a better childbirth experience. Optimism was identified as a resilience factor, associated both with preference as well as with childbirth experience. Implications for practicephysically healthy and resilient women could be encouraged to explore the prospect of home or natural hospital births as a means to have a more positive birth experience.