Childbirth efficacy: Validating the childbirth self-efficacy inventory in a Greek sample of pregnant women

Abstract

Objective: childbirth self-efficacy has been found to be a factor that influences women's decision about their choice of delivery. Greece is a country with a high caesarean section rate and the validation of the Childbirth Self-Efficacy Inventory (CBSEI) would help explore Greek pregnant women's emotional preparation of childbirth. The aim of the study was to translate the CBSEI to Greek and to examine its psychometric properties.

Design: a cross-sectional study.

Setting: private hospital in Athens, Greece.

Participants: 145 pregnant women, in late pregnancy, attending routine antenatal visit between April 2014 and June 2014.

Measurements: the CBSEI was 'forward-backward' translated from English to Greek language. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used to describe and compare the scales. Factor structure was investigated using principal axis factoring. Measures of self-esteem and optimism were used to assess the convergent validity of the CBSEI. Cronbach's α was used to measure internal consistency reliability.

Findings: the factor analysis suggested the existence of a three-factor structure with meaningful groupings. Greek women were able to distinguish between outcome expectancy and self-efficacy expectancy and between the two labour stages, active phase of the first stage and the second stage of labour. Construct validity was confirmed by computing correlations between the CBSEI subscales and conceptually similar constructions of self-esteem and optimism. Internal consistency reliability was satisfactory.

Key conclusion and implications for practice: the Greek version of the CBSEI is a reliable and valid measure. The clinical use of CBSEI may enable midwives and other health care professionals to identify pregnant women with low childbirth self-efficacy. The clinical use of CBSEI may also give the opportunity to provide information and support for preparing and empowering women for childbirth in order to improve their childbirth experience.

Keywords: Childbirth; Midwives; Pregnancy; Self-efficacy; Validation.