Differential and Personality Psychology, Faculty of Health, HMU Health and Medical University Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 3;16(11):e0258696. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258696. eCollection 2021.
Previous research suggests that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, less extraverted, and less agreeable women tend to suffer from higher fear of childbirth and experience their delivery as worse. Moreover, there is evidence that birth characteristics and unexpected incidents during delivery may impact women's birth experiences. However, it remains unknown whether the role of personality in subjective birth experiences varies between women with different birth characteristics.
We used data from the Maternal Anxiety in Relation to Infant Development (MARI) Study, a regional-epidemiological study among pregnant women, who were prospectively followed up in multiple waves across the peripartum period. During pregnancy, personality was assessed with the short version of the Big Five Inventory. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/ Experience Questionnaire was used to measure fear of childbirth (version A) during pregnancy and subjective birth experiences (version B) within the first 10 days after delivery.
Linear regressions revealed that lower levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and extraversion predicted higher fear of childbirth during pregnancy. Moreover, personality affected subjective birth experiences especially in women with specific birth characteristics: Lower emotional stability predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with (vs. without) a preterm delivery, and higher conscientiousness predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with an emergency cesarean section (vs. spontaneous delivery). Subjective birth experiences were also worse in less emotionally stable and less open women with (general) anesthesia (vs. no anesthesia) during delivery. Finally, higher emotional stability predicted a subjective birth experience that was worse than expected, particularly in multiparous women and women without anesthesia during delivery.
These findings suggest that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, and less open women tend to experience their delivery as worse particularly in case of unexpected incidents (i.e., preterm delivery, emergency cesarean section, and necessity of anesthetics) and might thus profit from early targeted interventions.
先前的研究表明，情绪不稳定、责任心低、外向度低、宜人性低的女性往往更容易对分娩感到恐惧，并且体验到的分娩过程更差。此外，有证据表明分娩特征和分娩过程中的意外事件可能会影响女性的分娩体验。然而，个性在不同分娩特征女性的主观分娩体验中的作用是否存在差异，目前尚不清楚。
我们使用了来自母婴焦虑与婴儿发育关系（MARI）研究的数据，这是一项针对孕妇的区域性流行病学研究，在围产期的多个阶段进行了前瞻性随访。在怀孕期间，使用大五人格量表的简短版本评估人格。使用 Wijma 分娩期望/体验问卷（版本 A）在怀孕期间测量对分娩的恐惧，（版本 B）在分娩后 10 天内测量主观分娩体验。
线性回归显示，情绪稳定性、宜人性和外向度较低会预测怀孕期间对分娩的恐惧程度更高。此外，个性对主观分娩体验的影响尤其在具有特定分娩特征的女性中更为明显：情绪稳定性较低预示着有早产（vs. 无早产）的女性主观分娩体验更差，尽责性较高预示着紧急剖宫产（vs. 自然分娩）的女性主观分娩体验更差。在分娩时使用全身麻醉（vs. 无麻醉）的情绪不稳定和开放性较低的女性，主观分娩体验也更差。最后，情绪稳定性较高预示着主观分娩体验比预期更差，尤其是在多产女性和分娩时未使用麻醉的女性中。
这些发现表明，情绪不稳定、尽责性较低和开放性较低的女性尤其在出现意外情况（即早产、紧急剖宫产和需要麻醉）时，往往会体验到更差的分娩过程，因此可能受益于早期有针对性的干预措施。
