The examination of birth fear of young adultd

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the fear of childbirth before pregnancy in young adult individuals. Materials and Methods: The research design is cross-sectional and descriptive. The sample of the research consisted of 1008 students studying at Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Vocational School of Health Services in the 2020-2021 academic year and accepted to participate in the research. The Individual Introduction Form prepared by the researchers and the Pre-Pregnancy Fear of Birth Scale validated and reliable in Turkish by Uçar and Taşhan (2018) were used as data collection tools. The data were collected by sharing Google forms online questionnaires in student Whatsapp groups. In the analysis of the data, number, percentage and t test values were examined by using SPSS 15 statistical program. Results: The mean age of the students was 20.6±1.7, and 90.9% of them were women. The students' the pre-pregnancy fear of birth scale mean score was found to be 39.47±10.62. Students' age, gender, Faculty/High School, class, having information about birth, witnessing normal or cesarean birth, thoughts about birth, choice of future birth method and desired number of children, birth type of women in their immediate surroundings, visual media It was found that the health education received at school, the birth stories of family or friends and their experiences affected the mean score of the pre-pregnancy fear of birth scale and were statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: It was determined that the birth fear levels of young adult individuals were above the average. It was found that the students who studied outside the field of health and those who stated that they would prefer cesarean section as the delivery method in the future had high birth fear scores. Keywords: Fear of childbirth, birth preference, fear of childbirth in young individuals