The Effect of Women’s Personality Traits on Traumatic Birth Perception

Abstract

Backround: Birth is a unique experience, women are often perceived as a positive life event. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the effect of personality traits on the perception.of traumatic birth in women between the ages of 18-65. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive and relational study the universe of living in Turkey, women in 18-65 age, the sample of living in Istanbul, can read and understand Turkish created voluntary participation of 300 women in the study. "Participant introduction form", "Cervantes Personality Scale (CPS)" and "Traumatic Birth Perception Scale (TBPS)" were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics, One-Way ANOVA test, independent sample t test, Spearman correlation tests and multiple regression analysis were used to evaluate the data. Results: While 17.3% of the participants in the study had negative birth experience, 77% listened to negative birth stories from others. Women who stated that they had negative birth experiences had more extroverted personality traits than others. The total score of TBPS in the study was 64.57 ± 31.48. CPS subscale scores; extraversion/introversion was 17.06 ± 3.51, emotional balance was 17.27 ± 5.51, and consistency/inconsistency was 17.00 ± 4.33. It was determined that there is weakly significant positive relationship between the emotional balance sub-dimension of the personality scale and the consistency/inconsistency sub-dimension. According to this analysis, total of 38.6% change in the "emotional balance" sub-dimension of the CPS sub-dimensions was found to be effective in increasingthe level of traumatic birth perception. Conclusion: Women's personality traits affect the perception traumatic birth. It is recommended to examine personality traits of women with high perception of traumatic birth and consider results obtained in care and treatment processes.