Views on spousal support during delivery: a Turkey experience

BACKGROUND: Spousal support is important during delivery since it satisfies the women and their spouses. Thus both women and their spouses should be included, where appropriate, in research on labour and birth. This descriptive study aimed to determine Turkish women’s and their spouses’ views on spousal support during delivery. METHODS: The study population included women who stayed in the postpartum unit of a hospital and gave birth vaginally to their first child between the thirty-seventh and forty-second week of pregnancy. It also included their spouses. The study sample included 170 couples. The data were collected using introductory information forms administered to women and their spouses. The data were analyzed using percentages, averages, the chi-square test and logistic regression modeling. RESULTS: This study indicated that 67.6% of the women and 71.8% of women’s spouses were in favor of spousal support during delivery. It also suggested that the women with negative experiences of childbirth needed social support during delivery and demanded to receive more spousal support but could not receive this support from the healthcare personnel (p < 0.05). The logistic regression models revealed that the risk of demanding to receive spousal support during delivery was 9.4 times higher in the women who needed social support during delivery than those who do not. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that women’s spouses wanted to be included in the delivery process more than the women wanted them to be, and the women who could not receive the necessary support needed more spousal support.