The Obstacles of Choosing Vaginal Delivery and Policies to Increase it from the Point of View of Gynecologists and Midwives

Abstract




Background: In the last few years, the rate of cesarean section has increased all around the world. This study was conducted to investigate the obstacles of performing vaginal delivery and policies to increase vaginal delivery from the point of view of gynecologists and midwives.



Methods: A total of one hundred gynecologists and midwives working in Kerman participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a questionnaire included three parts of demographic data, 13 questions regarding obstacles of normal vaginal delivery (NVD) and 10 questions regarding policies to encourage NVD. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test and through SPSS19 software.



Results: There was no significant difference between gynecologists and midwives in regard to mean scores of NVD obstacles and policies to encourage NVD. Among the obstacles, increase of maternal age in the first pregnancy and being afraid of delivery complications obtained the highest and the lowest mean scores respectively .Among the policies to encourage NVD, careful prenatal care had the highest mean score and increasing the cooperation between doctors and midwives had the lowest mean score.



Conclusion: According to the results, the most important obstacle of NVD is high maternal age in the first pregnancy and the best recommended solution to encourage NVD is careful prenatal care leading to mothers' preparation for NVD.