Abstract
BACKGROUND: Expectant fathers experience a range of different emotions during their wife's pregnancy; one of these feelings is fear. It has adverse consequences on both the father and his family. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of midwifery-led counseling on the fear of childbirth among expectant fathers. METHODS: A two-armed parallel design randomized controlled trial was conducted from July to August 2020. Fifty expectant fathers with severe fear of childbirth at the 24th-27th weeks of gestation, in the Iranian setting, were assigned to intervention and control groups (allocation ratio1:1) using permuted block randomization. Participants assigned to the intervention group were engaged in six 60-90-min midwifery-led counseling sessions (twice a week) in the Skyroom platform. Measures were administered at recruitment, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up. The primary outcome was the change in fear of childbirth score between groups over time. Secondary outcomes were changes in the General Self-Efficacy score as well as changes in the frequency of the preferred type of delivery between groups over time. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 31.64 (3.33) years. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the fear of childbirth score in the intervention group significantly decreased (β = - 11.84; 95% Confidence Interval: - 21.90 to - 1.78; P = 0.021) compared to that of the control group. In terms of secondary outcomes, the intervention group showed a significant increase in General Self-Efficacy compared to the intervention group at one-month follow-up measurement (β = 1.43; 95% Confidence Interval: 0.28 to 2.58; P = 0.014). However, the frequency of preferred delivery type was not significantly different between the intervention and control groups (P = 0.139). CONCLUSIONS: Midwifery-led counseling can be an effective approach in reducing expectant fathers' childbirth fear with potential clinical significance. Although the inconclusive results imply more research on this issue. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registration number: IRCT20150608022609N6 . Registered 12/04/2019.