Effect of the Spontaneous Bearing Down During the Second Stage of Labor on Mother and her Newborn Bonding

Abstract

In the past, childbirth used to take place at home with the care and attention of a midwife who had little experience in managing it, applying the least possible interventions during labor. Labored woman was free to assume any position that made her comfortable and relieved her pain. By the end of the 19th century, delivery began to take place in the hospital, which improved the mother and newborn's condition and made delivery safer, but that affected the process and nature of labor, with many medical procedures involved.

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of spontaneous bearing down during the second stage of labor on the mother-newborn bonding.

A questionnaire was used on the purposive sample of 60 labored women with inclusion criteria, at the Department of Labor and Delivery at the Al-Asad Medical Center in Hama Governorate, who were randomly distributed to control and experimental groups between 23/12/2022 and 11/5/2023. The data was collected by using a two-tools:

The first one consists of demographic data, pregnancy and childbirth's history، first stage and second stage of current labor.

Second tool: Maternal-newborn bonding questionnaire.

The results indicated statistically significant differences between the two study groups in terms of the average duration of the second stage, the number of bearing down during the single contraction, and the time taken during the single bearing down (P= 0.000), and also the statistical differences were very important in terms of mother – newborn bonding between the two study groups immediately after birth; A week later.

The study recommended on the importance of educational programs for midwives about effect of spontaneous bearing down on mother and fetus health, and improving mother – newborn bonding in postnatal period, educate pregnant women about mechanism of spontaneous bearing down and its importance.