• The relationship between midwifery assertiveness and labor outcomes in primiparous women
  • mina ghalenovi,1,*
    1. MSc in Midwifery Care, Departement of Midwifery, Scool of Nursing, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran.


  • Introduction: Pregnancy is a natural process in women's lives, but Midwifery skills play an important role in maternal health. Midwives are frightened and stressed by the injury and by unknown and ambiguous judgments and legal complaints. One of the causes of midwives' job stress is due to traumas that occur during delivery for clients. Stress, time constraints, concerns about poor performance, and lack of experience are factors that put pressure on midwives to refuse to act on evidence. Assertiveness improve communication skills,self esteem and finally making decisions. Midwives need personal skills and develop coping skills to respond to stressful issues in order to respond to clients' needs. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between midwifery assertiveness and labor outcomes in primiparous women
  • Methods: This is a descriptive correlational study that was conducted in Mashhad maternity hospitals in 2016. The researcher first provided the midwife with the Bar On assertiveness Questionnaire and collected their information, then collected information on 120 first-term births, headaches, unilateral and non-abnormalities delivered by the attending midwives. Did. Information on the outcome of childbirth was collected by a researcher-provided checklist. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software. Mann-Whitney nonparametric test was used because the two variables were not normal.
  • Results: The results of the study showed that the score of assertiveness in midwives was 84.1± 36.0 . Between midwives' assertiveness and duration of first and second stage of labor (p = 0.084), abnormal heart rate pattern in first and second stage of labor (p = 0.072), use of oxytocin (p = 1), episiotomy There was no significant relationship between postpartum hemorrhage (p = 0.09) and excessive postpartum hemorrhage (p = 0.086). There was also no relationship between midwife assertiveness and first minute Apgar score, need for resuscitation, dystocia and emergency cesarean section.
  • Conclusion: The present study showed that there was no significant relationship between midwifery assertiveness and childbirth outcomes. Therefore, it is suggested that studies with more samples be conducted, examining other psychological skills, and even training them on midwives' performance.
  • Keywords: labor Outcome, Midwife, assertiveness, Primiparous