Determi̇ni̇ng women's expectations and experiences of childbirth

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with the aim of determining the expectations and experiences of women during childbirth. Data were collected from 117 women who were selected randomly from the delivery unit and obstetrics wards of a state hospital in the southern part of Turkey between January 2021 and July 2021 ,using Personal Information Form , obstetric Information Form and The Thai Childbirth Expectation & Experience Questionnaire (TCEEQ). Statistical tests such as Frequency tables, descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The mean age of participants was 26.47±5.69 (years), 29.1% of women were primigravida, 82.1% of the pregnancies were wanted pregnancies, 52.1% of deliveries were executed by midwives, 75.2% of deliveries occured with a labor period under 16 hours, 89.7% of women received support during labor , 52.2% of them were supported by a midwife, 72.6% of participants did not experience complications during delivery. It was found that 75.69% of women's expectations were met during labor, while 24.31% of expectations were not fulfilled, 34.86% of the cases recorded unexpected experiences during childbirth. It was determined that 54.7% of participants were very satisfied with the birth process. It was found that there was a significant relationship between the expectation fulfillment level and satisfaction with intrapartum care. (p=0.000<0.05). In this study, it was found that the women were satisfied with intrapartum care and most of their expectations were met. Keywords: Birth expectation, Birth experience, Nursing