Fear of childbirth and its relationship with anxiety and depression among Iranian fathers: a descriptive study

ABSTRACT

Introduction

In addition to mothers, fathers may find the perinatal period difficult and complicated and experience a wide variety of emotions, such as fear, anxiety and depression. These emotional changes can adversely affect a father’s relationships with his infant and wife. This descriptive study aims to investigate the fear of childbirth in fathers during pregnancy and explore its relationship with anxiety and depression.

Methods

A total of 302 husbands of pregnant women participated in this descriptive study through the cluster random sampling method. The data collection tools were the sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics questionnaire, Paternal Fear of Childbirth Scale, Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.

Results

The mean (±SD) of paternal fear of childbirth score was 48.39 (±14.10) within the possible 17–85 range. According to Pearson correlation test results, fear of childbirth had significant direct correlations with depression (P < 0.001; r = 0.47), state anxiety (P < 0.001; r = 0.60) and trait anxiety (P < 0.001; r = 0.51). The adjusted general linear model results indicated that an increase in fear of childbirth score significantly increased depression (β = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.22; P < 0.001), state anxiety (β = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.38 to 0.53; P < 0.001) and trait anxiety (β = 0.35; 95% CI: 0.27 to 0.42; P < 0.001) scores obtained from participants.

Conclusion

It is recommended to develop comprehensive programmes to screen fathers for fear of childbirth and any other psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety, to implement appropriate preventive and therapeutic interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Fear of childbirth
• father
• anxiety
• depression
• mental health

Acknowledgments

This study is extracted from the master thesis of midwifery. All the health centres in Tabriz city as well as all the participants in this study are hereby appreciated.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

This research has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran (code number IR.TBZMED.REC.1400.1038). All methods were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the study are not generally available due to the limitation of ethical issues but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable requests.

Additional information

Funding

Tabriz University of Medical Sciences provided funding, but it had no role in designing and conducting the study, writing this manuscript and submitting it for publication.