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Abstract

Objectives
During the perinatal period, women and their birth companions form expectations about childbirth. We aimed to examine whether a mismatch between birth expectations and experiences predict childbirth‐related post‐traumatic stress symptoms (CB‐PTSS) for mothers and birth companions. We also explored the influence of the mismatch between mothers' and birth companions' expectations/experiences on CB‐PTSS.

Design
Dyadic longitudinal data from the Self‐Hypnosis IntraPartum Trial.

Methods
Participants (n = 469 mothers; n = 358 birth companions) completed questionnaires at 27 and 36 weeks of gestation and 2 and 6 weeks post‐partum. We used the measures of birth expectations (36 weeks gestation), birth experiences (2 weeks post‐partum) and CB‐PTSS (6 weeks post‐partum).

Results
Correlations revealed that birth expectations were associated with experiences for both mothers and birth companions but were not consistently associated with CB‐PTSS. Birth experiences related to CB‐PTSS for both mothers and birth companions. The response surface analysis results showed no support for the effect of a mismatch between expectations and experiences on CB‐PTSS in mothers or birth companions. Similarly, a mismatch between mothers' and birth companions' expectations or experiences was unrelated to CB‐PTSS.

Conclusions
Following previous literature, birth expectations were associated with experiences, and experiences were associated with CB‐PTSS. By testing the effect of the match between birth experiences and expectations using an advanced statistical method, we found that experiences play a more substantial role than the match between experiences and expectations in CB‐PTSS. The impact of birth experiences on CB‐PTSS highlights the importance of respectful and supportive maternity care.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author(s). British Journal of Health Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	birth expectations, birth experiences, dyadic analysis, longitudinal data, post-traumatic stress symptoms, response surface analysis
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Midwifery & Radiography
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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