The role of fear of childbirth and birth experiences in observed maternal parenting behaviour

BACKGROUND: Fear of childbirth and negative birth experiences have suggested to been associated with parenting behaviour and thereby indirectly with child outcomes. The current study contributes to this knowledge by investigating fear of childbirth and birth experience as predictors of observed parenting behaviour.

METHODS: We longitudinally tested the role of fear of childbirth and birth experiences in two dimensions of observed parenting behaviour: maternal sensitivity and disruptive maternal behaviour. We built two hierarchical regression models: maternal sensitivity as the dependent variable in the first model and disruptive maternal behaviour in the second model. In both models, fear of childbirth was added as an independent variable in the first step and birth experience in the second step.

RESULTS: Results of the hierarchical regressions and post-hoc equivalence testing suggested that fear of childbirth may not predict mothers' postnatal parenting behaviour. Yet, the role of birth experience in maternal parenting behaviour remained unclear, as the results of hierarchical regression were non-significant, but equivalence testing resulted in inconclusive results.

CONCLUSION: Fear of childbirth and negative birth experience may not necessarily stand in the way of sensitive parenting.