Changing Beliefs and Attitudes About Birth in Preconceptive Young Women: Effectiveness of In-Depth, Direct Pedagogy

Due to pervasive cultural influences childbirth is typically viewed by young women as a painful and frightening event requiring medical attention. The current research investigates whether providing college-attending women access to information, education, and critical thinking skills in the area of perinatal care can significantly, positively alter this belief system. Twenty-seven female students in attendance at a small, private, four-year liberal arts college participated in one of two studies examining the effects of a 15-week, seminar-style undergraduate college course entitled “The Biopsychology of Birth.” Beliefs and attitudes about childbirth were surveyed among women who took the course and those who had not. Significant differences in the predicted direction were found between the experimental and control groups as well as between the pre- and post-intervention responses from participants. Pre-conceptive educational interventions that successfully change beliefs/attitudes about birth may also result in longer-term positive, healthy, low-intervention choices in pre- and perinatal care.