Effectiveness of Childbirth Preparation Education

August 20, 2025 updated by: Antalya Bilim University

The Effect of Childbirth Preparation Education on Perceived Stress and Traumatic Birth Perception in Pregnant Women

The act of birth, which is considered a natural event, is an act that the mother will remember with positive experiences in her life if it progresses normally. However, sometimes birth can be perceived as stressful and traumatic for women. Stress during pregnancy is a problem that should be emphasized and managed due to its negative effects on the health of the mother and the baby. As the pregnancy progresses, the levels of stress hormones may increase. In addition, the thought of spontaneous birth exposes women to physical discomfort, stress and uncertainty during pregnancy. The perception of traumatic birth is an important concept that emerges as a result of the woman's mental birth scenario, the information she has acquired about birth, and every situation she experiences during the birth, and also affects the postpartum period. In studies conducted in Turkey using the Traumatic Birth Perception Scale, it was determined that 23.6% and 26.9% of women experienced a high level of traumatic birth perception. Nulliparity, negative feelings about birth, inadequate antenatal care, inadequate psychosocial support, risky pregnancies, and lack of information about birth are among the factors that may cause traumatic birth perception. Physical and mental preparation for birth and information about pain management are considered to be the basic elements of prenatal education classes. There are study results indicating that birth preparation classes benefit women in many aspects such as self-sufficiency, reduced fear of birth, and positive pregnancy experience. No study results have been found in the literature examining the effect of birth preparation education on the perception of traumatic birth during pregnancy. Based on this, this study was needed to examine the effect of pregnant women's participation in childbirth preparation training on their perceived stress level and perception of traumatic birth.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
38

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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Study Contact

Study Contact

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  • Name: PhD

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

28-34th weeks of pregnancy Agree to participate in the study Be literate Be able to speak and understand Turkish

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Training group
The sociodemographic data collection form and the perceived stress and traumatic birth perception scales as pre-tests will be applied to the pregnant women who accept the study before the childbirth training. After the pre-test, the pregnant women will be given face-to-face childbirth preparation training in a classroom environment during four sessions. When the participants complete the training sessions, the scales will be applied as a post-test. The data collection process will be completed after the application of the scales.
Behavioral: Training
Participants will be divided into groups of ten and the training is planned in 4 sessions. Session contents are prepared as sharing general information on preparation for birth, explanation of frequently applied interventions in labor, explanation of non-drug pain relieving methods, teaching and practicing active birth positions that help the labor progress. The duration of the sessions is planned as 2 hours on average.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
Time Frame: Pre-test and immediately post-test
It was developed by Cohen et al. (1983). The scale was adapted to Turkish by Eskin et al. (2013). The PSS, which consists of 14 items in total, was designed to measure the degree to which a number of situations in a person's life are perceived as stressful. Participants evaluate each item on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from "Never (0)" to "Very often (4)". 7 of the items containing positive expressions are scored reversely. Scores vary between 0 and 56. A high score indicates a high perception of stress. In the study by Eskin et al., the Cronbach's alpha value of the scale was found to be 0.84.
Pre-test and immediately post-test

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Traumatic Birth Perception Scale (TBPS)
Time Frame: Pre-test and immediately post-test
The Traumatic Birth Perception Scale (TBPS) was developed by Yalnız et al. (2016) to determine the perception of traumatic birth, and its validity and reliability studies were conducted. The original study was conducted on women aged 18-40. The final version of the scale consists of 13 items. Each item is in the form of an ordinal scale and is scored between 1 (lowest score) and 10 (highest score). The scores obtained from each item are added together. As the score obtained from the scale increases, it shows that the level of perception of birth as traumatic increases. The score obtained from the scale varies between 0 and 130. According to the total score of the scale; 0-26 points indicate "very low", 27-52 points indicate "low", 53-78 points indicate "medium", 79-104 points indicate "high", and 105-130 points indicate "very high" level of perception of traumatic birth. The Cronbach alpha value was found to be 0.89 in the original study of the scale.
Pre-test and immediately post-test

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Antalya Bilim University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
March 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
May 9, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
May 9, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 14, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 25, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
February 27, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
August 27, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 20, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2025-101

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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