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. 2020 Nov 23;20(1):718.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-020-03415-8.

Development of the Labor Pain Relief Attitude Questionnaire for pregnant women (LPRAQ-p)

Lianne P Hulsbosch  1 , Ivan Nyklíček  2 , Eva S Potharst  3   4 , Myrthe Gbm Boekhorst  2 , Victor Jm Pop  2
Affiliations

Development of the Labor Pain Relief Attitude Questionnaire for pregnant women (LPRAQ-p)

Lianne P Hulsbosch et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Receiving epidural analgesia during labor can possibly have negative consequences for mother and child. Yet, the use of epidural analgesia rapidly increased in the Netherlands over the last decade. Since antenatal plans for labor pain relief have been related to epidural analgesia use during labor, the aim of the current study was to develop a Labor Pain Relief Attitude Questionnaire for pregnant women (LPRAQ-p).

Methods: Three focus group interviews were conducted with pregnant women, new mothers and caregivers and 13 candidate items were derived. Psychometric properties were tested with explorative factor analysis in sample I (N = 429) and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis in a different sample II (N = 432).

Results: The explorative factor analysis suggested a two-factor seven-item solution: a 'women's perception' and 'social environment' subscale. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed an excellent six-item model fit with appropriate internal consistency. Higher scores on the six-item LPRAQ-p indicate greater willingness for request of pain relief medication during labor. Two-tailed t-tests showed that women with elevated levels of depression and pregnancy-specific distress symptoms, nulliparous women and multiparous women with complications during a previous delivery had greater willingness for request of pain relief medication during labor. Linear regression showed that the most important association with higher scores on the LPRAQ-p were high pregnancy-specific distress symptoms.

Conclusions: This study showed the LPRAQ-p to be a valid instrument to evaluate attitude towards labor pain relief in pregnant women. High scores on this questionnaire are associated with high levels of pregnancy-specific distress symptoms.

Keywords: Antenatal; Attitude; Epidural analgesia; Labor pain relief; Validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Differences in mean total scores of the Labor Pain Relief Attitude Questionnaire for pregnant women (LPRAQ-p, higher scores indicate greater willingness for request of pain relief medication during labor) between women with and without elevated levels of depression symptoms (p = .003), between women with and without elevated levels of pregnancy-specific distress symptoms (p < 0.001), between nulliparous and multiparous women (p = 0.022), and between multiparous women with and without a history of complications during a previous delivery (p = 0.011)
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