The effect of birth fear on lactation, sucking ability and first breastfeeding results

Objective: The impact of the fear experienced during vaginal birth on lactation, the baby's sucking behavior and first breastfeeding results. Methods: It is a decriptive stdy. A total of 102 mother who gave birth in hospitals depended to health minstry participated. The identifying information form, the birth process evaluation form, birth fear scale, lactation, baby's sucking behavior and evaluating of the first breast result forms was used for data collection. For data analysis T test, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney and Spearman correlation were used. Results:The fear of mothers in active phase of birth was statistical higher than fear in latent phase of birth( 73.84; 47.16; p=0.000). Mothers with higher fear in active phase, spended more time for placement the baby (p=0.001), babies dont want to breast (p=0.000), they did not catch areola properlly (p=0.000), babies fail in atach to breast(p=0.000), there was no eye contact between babies and mothers and they did not hold their babies properly (p=0,001), the act of swallowing was slow (p=0.001), after breastfeeding, babies and mothers were more uneasy(p=0.000), they had more breastfeeding problems(p=0.00), and mother were more tense (p=0.000). Conclusions: The birth fear expecially in active phase negatively effect breastfeeding. Nurses should provide appropriatly care for decreasing birth fear. Keywords: Vaginal birth, fear, breastfeeding.