Individual and Group Psycho-Educational Counseling on Knowledge, Attitude and Preference for Birth Method in Nulliparous Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: To study the effects of the Individual and Group Psycho-educational counseling in pregnant women on knowledge, attitude and mode of delivery. Materials and methods: This is a randomized controlled trial that carried out on 100 healthy nulliparous pregnant women with uncomplicated pregnancies, who had no contraindication for vaginal birth, but opted for a caesarean section in Medical centers of Dezful city, in the south west of Iran. Participants were randomly assigned into individual or group psycho-educational counseling from gestational week 20 and Knowledge, attitude and mode of delivery in the Individual and Group Psycho-educational counseling methods were measured. Results: All the participants (100%) in the individual and a majority (92%) in the group counseling changed their preference for birth method to vaginal birth after the counseling intervention. Baseline mean scores of knowledge and attitude into birth method selection were equal between groups. After the counseling intervention the mean scores increased significantly for knowledge in both the individual and group counseling groups: 12.96 and 12.88 before the intervention to 24.16 and 22.62, respectively (p < 0.001). Likewise attitude mean scores increased in both groups: 116.06 and 123.42, respectively, before the counseling sessions, that changed to 170.12 and 160.36 after the counseling sessions (p < 0.001). The differences in knowledge and attitude mean scores were statistically non-significant between groups after the intervention. Conclusion: The individual as well as the group psycho-educational counseling sessions increased the knowledge and attitude of pregnant women in relation to vaginal birth without significant differences between groups. Both methods can be recommended. A group counseling method is more effective for advising on the choice of delivery method when many women request a caesarean section without medical indications.