Methods/design
Pregnant women in their second trimester of pregnancy will be recruited and screened from
antenatal clinics in Queensland, Australia. Women reporting high childbirth fear will be
randomly allocated to the intervention or control group. The psycho-educational intervention
is offered by midwives over the telephone at 24 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. The intervention
aims to review birth expectations, work through distressing elements of childbirth, discuss
strategies to develop support networks, affirm that negative childbirth events can be managed
and develop a birth plan. Women in the control group will receive standard care offered by
the public funded maternity services in Australia. All women will receive an information
booklet on childbirth choices. Data will be collected at recruitment during the second
trimester, 36 weeks of pregnancy, and 4–6 weeks after birth.
Discussion
This study aims to test the efficacy of a brief, midwife-led psycho-education counselling
(known as BELIEF: Birth Emotions - Looking to Improve Expectant Fear) to reduce
women’s childbirth fear. Relative to controls, women receiving BELIEF will report lower
levels of childbirth fear at term; 2) less decisional conflict; 3) less depressive symptoms; 4)
better childbirth self-efficacy; and 5) improved health and obstetric outcomes.
Trial registration
Australian New Zealand Controlled Trials Registry ACTRN12612000526875