Table 1.

Descriptive statistics in total and for Belgian and Dutch women separately

		Total	Belgium	The Netherlands
Socio-demographic variables
Higher education	%	57.11	76.99	40.50
	n	329	194	135
	CI	0.55 – 0.59	0.75 – 0.79	0.38 – 0.43
Married/cohabitating	%	98.40	97.90	98.90
	n	596	257	339
	CI	0.976 – 0.988	0.978 – 0.979	0.988 – 0.989
Primiparae	%	54.20	48.20	51.80
	n	276	133	143
	CI	0.51 – 0.55	0.45 – 0.51	0.48 – 0.54
Employed	%	85.28	85.23	84.82
	n	517	221	296
	CI	0.84 – 0.87	0.84 – 0.88	0.83 – 0.87
Age	Mean	31.21	30.41	31.87
	SD	4.17	4.09	4.14
	n	816	372	444
	CI	31.06 – 31.36	30.20 – 30.62	31.68 – 32.07
Characteristics of childbirth
Length of labour (expressed in hours)	Mean	9.48	9.95	9.13
	SD	6.31	6.13	6.44
	CI	9.22 – 9.74	9.57 – 10.34	8.79 – 9.47
With medical intervention (1)	%	22.50	20.80	23.90
	n	133	54	79
	CI	0.21 – 0.24	0.18 – 0.23	0.22 – 0.26
Planning for a home birth (0)	%	37.00	24.00	48.00
	n	301	90	211
	CI	0.35 – 0.39	0.22 – 0.26	0.46 – 0.50
Social psychological variables
Labour pain	Mean	57.55	58.04	57.55
	SD	22.02	22.33	21.67
	CI	56.66 – 58.45	56.67 – 59.42	56.38 – 58.72
Personal control	Mean	4.34	4.27	4.37
	SD	1.24	1.19	1.29
	CI	4.28 – 4.39	4.20 – 4.35	4.30 – 4.44
Self-efficacy	Mean	3.89	3.89	3.89
	SD	0.53	0.53	0.53
	CI	3.87 – 3.91	3.86 – 3.92	3.87 – 3.92
Expectations met	Mean	2.59	2.69	2.50
	SD	0.96	0.93	0.97
	CI	2.55 – 2.63	2.63 – 2.75	2.44 – 2.55