ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2012
In the Nepalese context, can a husband's attendance during childbirth help his wife feel more in control of labour?
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does involving male partners in antenatal care improve healthcare utilisation? Systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literature from low- and middle-income countries.International health · 2020Pooled it
- Measuring women's childbirth experiences: a systematic review for identification and analysis of validated instruments.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2017Pooled it
- Male involvement and maternal health outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2015Pooled it
- Effect of dance labor on the management of active phase labor pain & clients' satisfaction: a randomized controlled trial study.Global journal of health science · 2014Trial
- Article
- Women's preferences, impacts, and satisfaction with companion support during labour and delivery experiences in Oman.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Men's perception and participation in maternal and child health care in the field practice area of a teaching hospital: A cross-sectional study from rural Bengal.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- The role and effect of companions during childbirth in Oman.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Observational
- The prevalence of pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal; the importance for childbirth.PloS one · 2024Article
- Factors Affecting Women's Assessment and Satisfaction with Their Childbirth.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Husbands' Perception of Environmental Characteristics During Participation in Physiologic Delivery.Journal of family & reproductive health · 2023Article
- Article
- Birth attendants' attitudes and practice of companionship during facility-based childbirth and associated factors in the West Shoa Zone, central Ethiopia: A mixed method design.SAGE open medicine · 2023Article
- Respectful Maternity Care in South Asia: What Does the Evidence Say? Experiences of Care and Neglect, Associated Vulnerabilities and Social Complexities.International journal of women's health · 2022Review
- Labor pain control and associated factors among women who gave birth at Leku primary hospital, southern Ethiopia.BMC research notes · 2019Article
- Adult male involvement in maternity care in Enugu State, Nigeria: A cross-sectional study.European journal of midwifery · 2019Article
- Caesarean section rate and cost control effectiveness of case payment reform in the new cooperative medical scheme for delivery: evidence from Xi County, China.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2018Article
- The role of husbands in maternal health and safe childbirth in rural Nepal: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2015Article
- Effect of the presence of support person and routine intervention for women during childbirth in Isfahan, Iran: A randomized controlled trial.Advanced biomedical research · 2014Article
- Attitudes and barriers toward the presence of husbands with their wives in the delivery room during childbirth in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Journal of family medicine and primary careArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA husband's support during childbirth is vital to a parturient woman's emotional well-being. Evidence suggests that this type of support enables a woman to feel more in control during labour by reducing maternal anxiety during childbirth. However, in Nepal, where childbearing is considered an essential element of a marital relationship, the husband's role in this process has not been explored. Therefore, we examined whether a woman in Nepal feels more in control during labour when her husband is present, compared to when another woman accompanies her or when she has no support person.
methodsThe study participants were low risk primigravida women in the following categories: women who gave birth with their husband present (n = 97), with a female friend present (n = 96), with mixed support (n = 11), and finally, a control group (n = 105). The study was conducted in the public maternity hospital in Kathmandu in 2011. The Labour Agentry Scale (LAS) was used to measure the extent to which women felt in control during labour. The study outcome was compared using an F-test from a one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression analyses.
resultsThe women who gave birth with their husband's support reported higher mean LAS scores (47.92 ± 6.95) than the women who gave birth with a female friend's support (39.91 ± 8.27) and the women in the control group (36.68 ± 8.31). The extent to which the women felt in control during labour was found to be positively associated with having their husband's company during childbirth (β = 0.54; p < 0.001) even after adjusting for background variables. In addition, having a female friend's company during childbirth was related to the women's feeling of being in control during labour (β = 0.19; p < 0.001) but the effect size was smaller than for a husband's company.
conclusionThe results show that when a woman's husband is present at the birth, she feels more in control during labour. This finding has strong implications for maternity practices in Nepal, where maternity wards rarely encourage a woman to bring her husband to a pregnancy appointment and to be present during childbirth.
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