Background and aim: Postpartum period is associated with significant changes in the quality of women's lives. These changes can affect the health of both the mother and child. Given the importance of the postpartum period and the factors influencing quality of life after childbirth especially the method of childbirth, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between quality of life after childbirth and the childbirth method in nulliparous women referred to healthcare centers in Sanandaj, Iran.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, ten healthcare centers in Sanandaj, Iran from 2014-to 2015 were chosen using a cluster random sampling method. The samples consisted of 410 nulliparous women. The Edinburgh postnatal depression scale was used for data collection in the third trimester of pregnancy. Those women with a score greater than 12 were excluded from this study. The quality of life in physical, psychological, social, environmental domains and the overall quality of life were measured and compared using the World Health Organization quality of life brief questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. We used descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and t-test for the analyses of outcomes.
Results: The means of quality of life in the groups of vaginal and cesarean childbirth were 98.29±11.82 and 100.4±10.26, respectively, which had no statistically significant differences.
Conclusion: Women with vaginal childbirth had the slightly higher quality of life scores than cesarean during 6 weeks after birth and later. Thus, providing more information to pregnant women to encourage them to use vaginal childbirth is suggested.
Keywords: Caesarean; Pregnancy; Quality of Life; Vaginal Childbirth.