effects of a parenting preparation course on preferred mode of delivery, fear of childbirth, and perception of traumatic childbirth in midwifery students

Background: the research was carried out to examine the effect of a parenting preparation course given to midwifery students during an academic semester on the preferred mode of delivery, fear of childbirth, and traumatic birth perception. methods: this was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design that included 47 second-year students enrolled in the parenting preparation course. students took the parenthood preparation course, 2 hours a week, for 14 weeks. data were collected using a descriptive information form, the pre-pregnancy fear of birth scale, and the perception of traumatic birth scale. paired t-test and chi-square test were used to evaluate intragroup and intergroup differences. the data were analyzed using spss 22.0 software at a statistical significance of 0.05. results: the mean age of the students was 20.13±0.67 years. the mean score of pre-pregnancy fear of childbirth was 40.46±9.37 in the pretest and 23.61±6.79 in the posttest. in addition, the mean score of traumatic childbirth perception decreased from 77.34±25.15 in the pretest to 39.44±13.78 in the posttest. the number of students who preferred cesarean section decreased significantly, while the number of students who preferred vaginal delivery increased after the preparation course. conclusion: parenting preparation classes can contribute to the reduction of fear of childbirth and the perception of traumatic childbirth in women.