• Mizuki Takegata, Megumi Haruna, Masayo Matsuzaki, Mie Shiraishi, Ryoko Murayama, Tadaharu Okano, and Elisabeth Severinsson.
• Department of Midwifery and Women's Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
• Nurs Health Sci. 2013 Sep 1; 15 (3): 326-32.

AbstractSevere antenatal fear of childbirth causes adverse effects on emotional well-being during the postpartum period. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire is widely used to measure fear of childbirth among women before (version A) and after (version B) delivery. In this study, the original Swedish version was translated into Japanese, and its validity and reliability were examined among healthy, pregnant Japanese women. The Japanese-translated version presented a multidimensional structure with four factors: fear, lack of positive anticipation, isolation, and riskiness. Exhibiting concurrent/convergent validity, the Japanese version correlated with other psychological measures at expected levels. The Cronbach's α (0.90) and the intraclass correlation coefficient (0.86, P < 0.001) were high. In conclusion, the results provide support for the Japanese version to be considered a valid and reliable measure of prenatal fear of childbirth among pregnant Japanese women. © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

27 keywords...

hide…