ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Currently, preparation for childbirth is becoming an increasingly popular addition to patient education. Because of this interest, it seems advisable to review the evidence on the effect of prepared childbirth. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Lamaze preparation on labor and delivery. METHODS: To investigate whether prepared-childbirth courses offer measurable physical advantages, we compared the labor and delivery characteristics of 80 primiparas who had taken Lamaze-training classes with 76 control patients who had not. We reviewed retrospectively obstetrical records of 156 pregnant women delivered in Ewha Womans University MokDong Hospital from January to December, 1997. RESULT: The length of the first stage of labor in the group that attended childbirth preparation classes was 5.70 hours and 6.93 hours in the comparison group. This difference was statistically significant (P= .040). The mean duration of the second stage of labor in attenders was 42.43 minutes and 41.16 minutes in the nonattenders(P= .719). Average duration of labor in attenders was 1.07 hours shorter than in nonattenders (P= .075). The cesarean section rate in attenders was 25% compared with 36.8% in nonattenders (P= .10920). CONCLUSION: No statistical significance was found in this study. However we need to be aware that the length of first stage of labor was shorter and the rate of cesarean section was lower in prepared group. Childbirth education should be integrated into prenatal health care to be readily available for all women.