Prevalence of Traumatic Childbirth and Post-traumatic Stress After Delivery in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background & Objective: Traumatic childbirth, followed by postpartum stress, imposes many psychological consequences on women and their families. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of traumatic childbirth and postpartum post-traumatic stress in Iran using a systematic review. Materials & Methods: In this review, ISI, PubMed, Scopus, SID, Iranmedex, IranDoc, Magiran, and Google Scholar databases were searched to find relevant studies, by looking for the following keywords, i.e., prevalence, traumatic childbirth, post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, delivery or birth,  Iran, and their English equivalents, in Persian and English-language journals published from 1981 to November 2018. Data were analyzed by the meta-analysis method using a random-effects model and the studies’ heterogeneity was calculated by the I2 index. Results: Of a total of 1420 studies, 8 descriptive studies carried out from 2010 to 2017 were finally included after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among the 800 samples studied, the overall prevalence of traumatic childbirth was 51.3% and the overall prevalence of post-traumatic stress was 29.1% among the total of 2687 samples studied. Conclusion: The prevalence of traumatic childbirth and post-traumatic stress is high in Iran; hence, it is necessary to carry out further studies to understand this important issue, so that more attention can be paid to mothers’ psychological problems to plan and make policies to maintain and improve their health in the postpartum period.

Keywords:

Iran , Post-traumatic stress , Prevalence , Systematic review , Traumatic childbirth