Rouhe 2013.
| Methods | Randomised trial | |
| Participants | Finland Inclusion criteria: nulliparous women with severe fear of birth according to the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire A (prenatal version) (W‐DEQ A) (REF 21) |
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| Interventions | Intervention: psychoeducative group sessions led by a psychologist Women in the control group received a letter in which they were advised to discuss their fear of childbirth in their primary maternity healthcare unit. When needed, primary health care referred fearful women to a special maternity care unit |
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| Outcomes | Mode of delivery, life satisfaction and general well‐being, costs, duration of labour and delivery, postpartum haemorrhage, usage of epidural or spinal analgesia, birthweight and umbilical arterial pH of the new born, Apgar scores, and interventions during the third stage of labour (suturing or surgical evacuation of placenta or membranes postpartum) | |
| Notes | Baseline (control group) CS rate: 32.5% Date of study: October 2007 to August 2009 Funding: Emil Aaltonen Foundation and the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation Conflict of interest: the authors declare that they have no known conflict of interests. |
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| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Method of allocation sequence generation not reported (Women were randomised, by one of the researchers, to the intervention or control group in the proportion of 1:2 in balanced blocks of 18) |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Sealed opaque envelopes used |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | No information provided in the report |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Main outcomes (mode of delivery) objective |
| Baseline characteristics similar? | Low risk | Table 3 in the article: There were no significant differences between study groups in age, social status, education, previous pregnancies or marital status |
| Baseline outcome measurements similar? | Unclear risk | No information provided |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | No missing data |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | Data on all prespecified outcomes reported |
| Protected against contamination? | Unclear risk | Insufficient information available to assess likelihood of contamination |
| Other bias | Low risk | No evidence of other bias |