Abstract
This cohort study compared 262 women with high childbirth distress to 138 non-distressed women. At 12 months, high distress women had lower health-related quality of life compared to non-distressed women (EuroQol five-dimensional (EQ-5D) scale 0.90 vs. 0.93, p = 0.008), more visits to general practitioners (3.5 vs. 2.6, p = 0.002) and utilized more additional services (e.g. maternal health clinics), with no differences for infants. Childbirth distress has lasting adverse health effects for mothers and increases health-care utilization.
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The study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (Grant ID 481900).
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The authors do not have a conflict of interest.
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Turkstra, E., Creedy, D.K., Fenwick, J. et al. Health services utilization of women following a traumatic birth. Arch Womens Ment Health 18, 829–832 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0495-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-014-0495-7