Effect of Using an Application for Enhancing Childbirth Self-efficacy to Cope with Labor Pain and Perception of The Childbirth Experience of Nulliparous Pregnant Adolescents
Abstract This Quasi-experimental research (two group posttest only design) aimed to evaluate the effect of using an application for enhancing childbirth self-efficacy to cope with the labor pain and perception of the childbirth experience of nulliparous pregnant adolescents. Participants were 13-19 year old nulliparous pregnant women with a gestational age of between 34 and 35 weeks that attended the Antenatal Care Unit of the Queen Savang Vadhana Memorial Hospital. There were 80 mothers, 40 each in the control group and experimental group. Participants in the experimental group were assigned to use the application, whereas the control group received routine standard care. The application was used as an instrument in conducting the study, which was based on Bandura’s selfefficacy theory. The labor pain coping behavior observation form and perception of childbirth experience questionnaire, which had Cronbach’s alpha coefficient at .92 and .90 respectively, were used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics and Independent T-test were used for analyzing the data. The results reveal that mothers in the experimental group had significantly higher mean scores on coping with the labor pain and perception of childbirth experience than mothers in the control group (t = 5.968, p < .001; t = 8.075, p < .001 respectively). This demonstrates that the application could effectively be used to increase childbirth self-efficacy to cope with the labor pain and perception of childbirth experience among nulliparous pregnant adolescents.