Attitude and preference of Thai pregnant women towards mode of delivery.

Objective: To explore the attitudes and wishes of Thai pregnant women regarding modes of delivery.

Material And Method: Four hundred fifteen pregnant women attending the Vajira Hospital antenatal clinic were included in the present study. Data was assembled from the voluntarily self-completion questionnaires completed by the eligible women.

Results: Only 3.1% of the participants could give entirely correct answers in the knowledge module. Most of the respondents (87.5%) preferred vaginal delivery. The most popular reason for the preference for vaginal delivery was desire for a natural process. Fear of labor pain was the most frequent reason of the women who preferred cesarean section. The strongest predictor for patients' preference for cesarean delivery was a prior cesarean section (RR 11.1, 95% CI 4.7 to 26). Thirty-two percent of the participants felt that cesarean delivery on maternal request was their right and they desired to take part in the decision-making for their mode of delivery. Of those women who stated that cesarean section on demand was their right, the majority (77.3%) still preferred vaginal delivery.

Conclusion: Although the proportion of Thai pregnant women who wished to have a cesarean delivery was higher than that of women from other countries, the majority of study participants preferred vaginal delivery.