Introduction Pregnancy and giving birth to a child are two of the most significant, fantastic, and pleasant events in most women’s lives. However, for some women, they are stressful and may be associated with severe fear of childbirth. Receiving support from partner and family and counseling support may decrease unusual fear of childbirth. If untreated, fear of childbirth remain and increase with approaching labor onset [1]. According to conducted studies, 20% of women experience severe anxiety and fear of childbirth which in 6 to 10% of them interferes with their daily lives [2].
Fear of childbirth may be related to worry about labor pain, childbirth tears, doubt about ability to giving birth vaginally, lack of support, being lonely during labor, and fear of child death or mother’s own death [2, 3]. Studies indicated that women’s fear related to childbirth is multidimensional and can be categorized into domains including pain, obstetric injuries, loss of control, insufficient support and loss of the baby’s or their own life [2, 4].
These fears may cause complications such as experiencing severe labor pain [5], postpartum depression or anxiety, physical problems, and impaired mother-fetus attachment [6-8]. Anxiety and stress can increase the levels of catecholamine, which can
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The State Anxiety Inventory measures anxiety at the time of assessment, which can fluctuate over time. The Trait Anxiety Inventory measures anxiety level as a personal characteristic, which is stable over time. Each scale included 20 items with a response scale of 1-4. The scales’ total score ranges from 20 to 80, with higher scores indicating higher anxiety [21]. The STAI showed acceptable internal consistency (0.89) [22]. Mahram translated the scale into Farsi and confirmed the validity of the instrument. The internal consistency of the state (0.91) and trait (0.90) items were excellent