The effect of a brief audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention on fear of childbirth during normal delivery: A non-randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Fear of childbirth is common among pregnant women. Although hypnosis has been widely applied in obstetrics, most programmes contain multiple sessions during pregnancy, requiring considerable manpower and resources. However, the effect of a brief audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention during labour on fear of childbirth remains unclear.

AIM: To explore the effectiveness of a brief audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention on fear of childbirth.

METHODS

A prospective non-randomised controlled trial was conducted among 346 women over 36 weeks of gestation. Participants were allocated to either the hypnosis group (n = 126) or the control group (n = 220) based on preference. The hypnosis group received an audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention during the latent phase of labour, while the control group received usual care. The primary outcome was fear of childbirth measured by the Childbirth Attitudes Questionnaires. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed. All the statistical analyses were conducted via SAS 9.4.

FINDINGS: Logistic regression indicated that fear of losing control, a subscale of the Childbirth Attitudes Questionnaires, was significantly lower in the hypnosis group at the third quartile (OR = 0.511, 95%CI: 0.266, 0.980). Additionally, participants in the hypnosis group reported lower labour pain intensity at the second quartile level (OR = 0.425, 95%CI: 0.189, 0.955), and reduced use of epidural analgesia (OR = 0.415, 95%CI: 0.210, 0.818).

CONCLUSION

The brief audio-guided self-hypnosis intervention could effectively reduce moderate levels of fear of losing control, labour pain intensity and epidural analgesia use. However, its effect was limited among women experiencing high levels of fear of childbirth or labour pain.