The relationship of pregnancy fear of birth with depression and anxiety

Aim: The resarch was carried out to determine the relationship between the fear of childbirth during pregnancy and depression and anxiety. Materials and Methods: The sample of the descriptive study consisted of the Ministry of Health Yozgat City Hospital Gynecology and Obstetrics Service and the LDRP Service and III. It consisted of 501 pregnant women who were in trimester. The data of the study were collected using the Personal Information Form, Beck Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Scale and Wijma Birth Expectation/Experience Scale (W-DEQ) version A. The analysis of the data was completedby transferring it to the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program. Frequency distribution (number, percentage) for categorical variables and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) for numerical variables are given. Whether there was a difference between the two groups was examined with the independent sample t-test, and if there was a diferrence between more than two groups, one-way analysis of variance (One Way ANOVA) was used. P<0.05 was accepted for significance. Results: In the study, Beck depression score was 15,13±7,22, Beck anxiety score was 17,50±8,18, Wijma score was determined as 52,42±24,67. As a result of Pearson correlation analysis, a significant positive correlation was found between beck depression score, beck anxiety and wijma scores (p<0.05). It was determined that education level,prenatal education level,willingness to deliver the baby and being able to cope with the birth were the factors affecting the fear of birth, beck depression and beck anxiety scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: as the anxiety and depression levels of pregnant women increase,the level of fear of childbirth increases. It is recommended to be aware of the factors that cause fear of childbirth during pregnancy and to provide training to reduce the fear of childbirth. 2022, 77 PAGE Keywords: pregnancy, fear of childbirth, depression, anxiety