Knowledge, Opinions, and Attitudes of the Pregnant Women Concerning Labor Coaching

Objective: this study was conducted in order to determine knowledge, opinions, and attitudes of the pregnant women concerning labor coaching. method: the population of this descriptive study consisted of 272 pregnant women who applied to the erzurum maternity hospital polyclinics between december 2014 and february 2015. the data were collected using a questionnaire prepared by examining literature knowledge and previous similar studies and they were assessed with percentage distribution in spss 20.0 packaged software. results: it was determined that 35.7% of the pregnant women participating in the study were in the age group of 25 and 29 years and 41.5% were primary school graduate. 83.1% of the pregnant women stated that they never heard about the concept of labor coach and 82.7% expressed that they would want to have a labor coach while giving birth. when the pregnant women were evaluated in terms of their knowledge regarding the duties of a labor coach, 93.0% stated that they support and encourage the mother with mental and physical support, 84.2% said that they inform and remind the mothers of the choices while making plans for the birth, 76.1% expressed that they facilitate their decision-making by pointing out their preferences, and 38.2% stated that it is a profession not responsible for health of the pregnant woman or the infant. when the pregnant women were assessed in terms of their knowledge about benefits of the labor coach, 52.2% stated that the birth would take less time, 40.3% stated there would be less need for interventions such as labor induction or cesarean section and 77.9% expressed that the labor coach would decrease their negative thoughts about the birth. conclusion: it was determined that the pregnant women never heard about the concept of labor coaching, they needed the labor coach, and they wanted to have a labor coach.