Introduction: childbirth is a physiological phenomenon, and normal delivery is the safest way to end pregnancy. Studies have shown that 4/3 of cesarean sections are for non-medical reasons and negative attitudes about normal delivery. The present study aimed to assess the effect of companion training based on Bandura's theory on mother’s attitude about delivery method in Mashhad.
Methods: This RCT were conducted on 60 primiparous mothers who were admitted to Umm al-Banin Hospital in Mashhad and were randomly assigned to the control group which received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of routin preparation and training sessions based on Bandura's theory were held for the intervention group. Two groups completed Demographic and attitude questionnaire about the method of delivery. Data were analyzed using t-test, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon in SPSS 16 software. Significance level was less than 0.05.
Results: The mean age of mothers in intervention group is 26.7±8.3 and in control group is 28.3±5.9 years. After the intervention, mean of the attitude towards normal delivery was 94.0 ± 6.4 in the intervention group and 85.9 ± 12.9 in the control group (P=0.005). The attitude towards normal delivery after the intervention compared to before the intervention increased by 19.4 ± 10.9 in the intervention group and by 10.1 ± 11.2 in the control group (P=0.002).
Conclusion: the present study showed that training along with Bandura's theory improved the attitude of mothers towards normal childbirth. It is recommended to use it as a training method during childbirth preparation.