title: Quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cesarean rates in recent decades have been increasing and a number of studies have shown that cesarean increases maternal morbidities. The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective study was carried out on 356 pregnant women visiting urban health centers in Shahroud City, Northeast Iran, in 2011. The subjects completed the quality of life questionnaire in the third trimester of pregnancy and at 8 weeks postpartum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In primiparas, the mean global QOL scores for the cesarean and vaginal delivery groups were 67.65±12.7 and 72.12±11.8, respectively. Also, the scores for the physical, psychological and social domains of QOL as well as the global score of QOL were higher in the vaginal delivery group than the cesarean group (p<0.05). In the case of primiparas, multiple regression analysis revealed that after adjusting for education, desirability of pregnancy and the General Health Questionnaire score, the delivery type remained as a predictor of the scores for the physical (R(2)=1.7%; B=-3.826; p=0.031; CI [-7.301, -.350]) and social (R(2)=2.5%; B=-5.708; p=0.017; CI [-10.392, -1.023]) domains of QOL and the global QOL score (R(2)=2.6%; B=-4.065; p=0.006; CI [-6.964, -1.164]). While multiparas, there was no relationship between QOL and type of delivery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this sample of low-risk women, cesarean negatively affected the QOL of primiparas. More studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted to examine the effects of cesarean on QOL in both primiparas and multiparas within a shorter period after delivery.
authors.affiliation: Assistant professor of psychiatry, Research Center of Psychiatry, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Golestan, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Abbas
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.forename: Forough
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mortazavi
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaman
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khosravi
keywords: Cesarean; Postpartum period; Pregnant women; Quality of Life
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