Attitude and Preference of Thai Pregnant Women
Towards Mode of Delivery†
Waralak Yamasmit MD*,
Surasith Chaithongwongwatthana MD**
Affiliation :
† The abstract of this manuscript was presented on September 25, 2010 as poster presentation at the Global Congress of
Maternal and Infant Health, Barcelona, Spain
* Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine Vajira Hospital,
University of Bangkok Metropolis, Bangkok, Thailand
** Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To explore the attitudes and wishes of Thai pregnant women regarding modes of delivery.
Material and Method: Four hundred fifteen pregnant women attending the Vajira Hospital antenatal clinic were included in
the present study. Data was assembled from the voluntarily self-completion questionnaires completed by the eligible women.
Results : Only 3.1% of the participants could give entirely correct answers in the knowledge module. Most of the respondents
(87.5%) preferred vaginal delivery. The most popular reason for the preference for vaginal delivery was desire for a natural
process. Fear of labor pain was the most frequent reason of the women who preferred cesarean section. The strongest
predictor for patients’ preference for cesarean delivery was a prior cesarean section (RR 11.1, 95% CI 4.7 to 26). Thirty-two
percent of the participants felt that cesarean delivery on maternal request was their right and they desired to take part in the
decision-making for their mode of delivery. Of those women who stated that cesarean section on demand was their right, the
majority (77.3%) still preferred vaginal delivery.
Conclusion : Although the proportion of Thai pregnant women who wished to have a cesarean delivery was higher than that
of women from other countries, the majority of study participants preferred vaginal delivery.
Keywords : Attitude, Preference, Pregnant women, Cesarean section, Obstetric delivery
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