Validation of the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (Version B) Among Greek Postpartum Women
<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Postnatal fear of childbirth (FOC) has a significant impact on women's mental health following childbirth. A widely employed tool for evaluating postnatal FOC is the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire version B (W-DEQ-B). This study aimed to validate the Greek version of the W-DEQ-B (GrW-DEQ-B) and confirm its reliability among Greek postpartum women having a low-risk pregnancy. <b>Methods</b>: At four weeks postpartum, 200 mothers after a low-risk pregnancy completed questionnaires, which included the GrW-DEQ-B and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). <b>Results</b>: The majority of participants had a vaginal delivery (80%), 52.0% of the sample were primigravida, and the mean gestational age at delivery was 38.8 weeks (SD = 0.8). The exploratory factor analysis yielded six factors ("Lack of self-efficacy", "Lack of positive anticipation", "Lack of feeling lonely", "Concerns about delivery and losing control", "Calmness", and "Concern for the child") of 33 items from the W-DEQ-B. The instrument's multidimensionality was verified by the confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA = 0.07; CFI = 0.90; TLI = 0.88). All Cronbach's alphas were over 0.7, indicating acceptable reliability of the factors. Almost all factors of the GrW-DEQ-B were significantly correlated with each other (<i>p</i> < 0.001), demonstrating the convergent validity of the tool. Significant correlations were found between almost all dimensions of the GrW-DEQ-B and the EPDS (<i>p</i> < 0.001), indicating the divergent validity of the tool. <b>Conclusions</b>: This study provides evidence that the Greek version of the W-DEQ-B proved to be a reliable and valid measure of FOC among Greek postpartum women.
Authors
- Άννα Δελτσίδου (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4323-6414)
- Victoria Vivilaki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7111-481X)
- Ioannis M. Zervas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1126-8369)
- Pinelopi Varela (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9419-0778)
- Aikaterini Lykeridou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0674-2414)
- Christina Nanou
Institutions
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- University of West Attica (GR)
- Alexandra Hospital (GR)
- Eginition Hospital (GR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Healthcare
- Published
- 2025-04-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13080896
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.88
Funders
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens