Assessing fear of childbirth and its predictors among Hungarian pregnant women using Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire subscales

ABSTRACT This study aimed to assess fear of childbirth (FOB) among Hungarian pregnant women and determine predictors based on WDEQ-A subscales. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 healthy pregnant women during their third trimester. A socio-demographic and obstetrics characteristics, the Hungarian version of WDEQ-A, Beck Depression Inventory-Short Form and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. The analysis was performed using multivariate linear regression. Among four WDEQ-A subscales, Fear (19%) and Lack of positive emotion (13%) obtained the largest and smallest percentages of cases with severe FOB. The nulliparous obtained significantly higher mean score in subscales Isolation and Lack of positive emotion compared to the multiparous. Anxiety was the most common predictor for all subscales in both groups. In the nulliparous group, significant predictors included economic hardship for Moment of birth, being a housewife for Fear, and wanted pregnancy for Lack of positive emotion. In the multiparous women, the strongest significant predictors were being married, previous elective caesarean section and being a housewife for subscales Isolation, Moment of birth, and Fear, respectively. Assessing FOB using WDEQ-A among Hungarian women revealed different mean scores and predisposing factors for each subscale. The topic should be further explored relative to its constituent factors.