A Prospective Study of Mothers’ Attitudes and Feelings Following Cesarean and Vaginal Births

Abstract

Anxiety, depression, attitudes to baby, and to pregnancy were studied in 125 primiparous women by means of a series of standardized psychological tests in pregnancy, while in the hospital, and at one month postpartum. Statistical analyses showed no significant difference in reported levels of anxiety, depressive affect, or attitudes to the baby between women delivered vaginally and those who had a cesarean birth. Although women who had cesarean births were more dissatisfied with the method of delivery, they were more satisfied with the help of the nurses than were women who had had vaginal births. These findings support the argument that having a cesarean section does not necessarily affect mothers’ reports of their development of maternal feelings toward the infant. (BIRTH 10:2, Summer 1983)