Exploring the Role of Birth Environment on Italian Mothers' Emotional Experience during Childbirth

Abstract

The physical environment is one of the factors that affect mother's experience of childbirth and psychological health. A woman's childbirth experience has been found to influence not only the mother's own health and future births but also the well-being of her child and family. The present study's objective was to investigate mothers' perceptions of spatial-physical humanization, affective quality of place, and emotions during childbirth. To achieve this goal, the first part of our work was dedicated to selecting two birth environments (hospital and birth center) with different degrees of humanization. The methods include observations and field survey which mainly concerned the environmental quality of the spaces and the layout of the birth unit, and self-report questionnaire about perceived environment, affective quality attributed to place, and delivery experience. Participants are 66 low-risk women, choosing hospital or birth center. The findings indicate an enhanced perception of both the spatial-physical aspects and the social and functional aspects of the care unit among mothers who give birth at the birth center. These same mothers also report a more positive perception of the childbirth experience. In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of birth environments in shaping mothers' emotional experiences during childbirth.

Keywords: affective quality of place; birth environment; psychological health; spatial humanization; women’s perception of birth experience.

Figure 1

Architectural plan of the Hospital setting.

Figure 2

Architectural plan of the Birth Centre setting.

Figure 3

Birth room (a) and corridor (b) of the Hospital.

Figure 4

Birth room (a1,a2) and corridor (b) of the Birth Centre.

Figure 5

Mean scores in Affective Quality of Place in hospital and birth center.