Vécu Psychologique De La Parturiente En Salle D’accouchement À La Maternité Du Centre Hospitalier Départemental Et Universitaire Du Borgou À Parakou (BENIN)

Abstract

Objective: To study parturient women’s psychological real-life experience in the delivery room of CHUD-B maternity hospital. Patients and Methods: This study shows a descriptive cross-sectional study with an analytical aim and a prospective data collection. It involves 100 parturient women who had a vaginal delivery at the gynecology and obstetrics department of Departmental University Teaching Hospital of Borgou. It covered the period from June 11 th to August 11 th 2014. Results: The average age of the parturient women was 27 years old ± 5.55. The parturient women were predominantly Muslims (58%), married (48%), and out-of-school (36%). They had a monogamous relationship (77%) with their husbands (66%). Also, they had conflict with the people around them (22%). They were anxious (58%), distressed (27%), and timorous and restless (57%). The main reasons for stress noticed among these parturient women were related to the fear of stillbirth (82%), a malformed child (76%), an infected newborn baby (76%), obstetrical trauma in the newborn baby (58%), and the newborn baby’s sex (26%). Subsequently, the fears of the parturient women were: the cesarean section (64%), maternal death (58%), the pain of childbirth (48%), traumatic maternal injury (47%), post-partum hemorrhage (45%), and the inability to face childbirth (31%). The parturient women before getting into the delivery room confided in traditional religious authorities (36%) who were either healers or marabous, witch doctors, spiritual advisors, or Christian priests. Conclusion: Delivery causes anxiety among parturient women whose apprehensions were about the pain of childbirth, the unborn baby, and their own mental ability to overcome the trial.