Background

Decision conflict usually occurs from poor patient involvement in decision making which may cause regrets about the options that were chosen. Health professionals should impart antenatal education to enhance a mother’s belief about her birthing.

Objective

To assess the effect of supportive educational intervention on decision conflict among primipara mothers with a fear of childbirth (FOC).

Methods

An randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted on 205 primipara mothers with an FOC attending Gynae OPD. At 24–28 weeks of pregnancy, mothers were screened for FOC WDEQ-A and then randomly allocated to the experimental (103) and control group (102) and assessed for decision conflict by using a decisional conflict scale. The experimental group was given Supportive educational intervention. At 37–38 weeks of pregnancy, both groups were again assessed for decision conflict. Three participants from the experimental and two from the control group were lost to follow up and the final post-test was completed by 200 participants. Data analysis was done by calculating frequency, mean, standard deviation, Fisher Exact test, chi-square, t-test and F-test using SPSS version 18.

Results

There was a significantly lower post-intervention decision conflict score in the experimental group as compared to the control group (p < .001). No difference was observed in the pre-test score in both groups.

Conclusion

Supportive educational intervention was effective in primipara mothers for reducing decision conflict. Improving antenatal emotional well-being will lead to a positive childbirth experience with better perinatal outcomes.