<b>Family anxiety during childbirth</b> - doi: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v10i3.10161

Abstract

The birth process, in especial delivery time, produces different personal and collective emotions, for being a moment of transition for the family, which changes the lives of the involved subjects, and so, it can be an anxiety inducing event. Therefore, the present quantitative, exploratory, descriptive and transversal study was realized, with the aim of identifying the trait and the state of anxiety of the family members who accompany women in labor at a hospital. Collection of data was performed in an obstetric unit of a general hospital, attended by 33 family members of pregnant women during the months of March and April, 2009. A form with socio-demographic questions and the State – Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used. Results show that the anxiety of family members is distributed similarly in “moderate” and “high” levels. During delivery and postpartum it is possible to verify a moderate state of anxiety. However, mother and husband were more anxious than other family members during delivery. Giving birth is an experience that generates moderate and high anxiety for the family members that escort the parturient woman.