Attitude and preference of Thai pregnant women towards mode of delivery.

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.