Intimacy and privacy during childbirth. a pilot-study testing a new self-developed questionnaire: the childbirth intimacy and privacy scale (CIPS)

*Melinda Rados¹, Eszter Kovács², Judit Mèszáros³

Summary
Introduction. Based on the findings of academic literature, evidence has found that physical and social environment play an inherent role in the birthing procedure. Birth is a natural process, with a specific sequence of hormonal changes and communication between mother and baby. Environmental stress, through a surge of adrenaline, can hinder the unfolding of the special physiological responses, and as a consequence of the contractions becoming less strong and frequent, the birthing process can stop. For this reason, privacy and intimacy are of special importance around the labouring mother.
Aim. The aim of our study was to explore what role privacy and intimacy play during labour and delivery. Furthermore, we aimed to discover whether perceived stress is related to privacy and intimacy experienced by mothers.
Material and methods. The newly created Childbirth Intimacy and Privacy Scale (CIPS) is introduced to measure physical and social privacy, safety and some other features which proved to be important during the birthing process keeping it on the physiological level. Additionally, we assessed stress experienced during birth with the shortened version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS).
Results. PSS and CIPS measures showed satisfactory internal consistency, data came from a normal distribution and items were strongly intercorrelated. Significant differences were found in PSS regarding education, marital status and socio-economic status (SES). Mothers with single marital status and low SES reported significantly higher perceived stress. Out of all CIPS items, mothers indicated high levels of privacy in features regarding no photos being taken, continuity of care throughout labour and delivery, patience and security provided by birth attendants and a lack of embarrassment in their presence. No significant differences were found when testing the mean value of the total score by using ANOVA; however, intimacy and privacy seemed to be slightly higher among mothers over 30 years old, having at least a third child, married, with lower qualifications and higher SES.
Conclusions. CIPS has proven to be an adequate measuring tool for assessing intimacy and privacy experienced by mothers during the birthing procedure. When privacy was rated high on the scale mothers perceived less stress and when rated low they experienced higher levels of stress. Therefore, if mother-focused care is the goal, caregivers should create and foster an atmosphere where intimacy and privacy are present, making a more satisfying birth possible with less interventions needed.

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