Cost-Effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting Program for Pregnant Women With Fear of Childbirth.

Objective: To examine the cost-effectiveness of the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) program compared with enhanced care as usual (ECAU).

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Midwifery settings in the Netherlands, April 2014 to July 2017.

Participants: Subset of pregnant women with high levels of fear of childbirth (N = 54: randomized to MBCP, n = 32, or to ECAU, n = 22) who were selected from the parent study because they completed all four cost questionnaires.

Methods: We measured self-reported health care and non-health care costs. A subset of participants from the parent study completed the questionnaires at all four assessment points. We used the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire to measure fear of childbirth and used the EuroQol-5D to measure quality of life. We used these measures of effect together with societal costs in the primary cost-effectiveness analyses. In the secondary cost-effectiveness analyses, we used different estimates of effects and costs to test the robustness of the primary analyses.

Results: In all but one scenario, MBCP was more effective and cost less than ECAU. As indicated by the acceptability curves, the likelihood of MBCP being cost-effective varied within a range of 70% to 98%.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that MBCP is a cost-effective intervention to reduce fear of childbirth in pregnant women. Important next steps are to replicate the study in countries with different health care systems and to explore the potential for further integration of MBCP into midwifery care.