title: Exploring Fear of Childbirth in the United States Through a Qualitative Assessment of the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore women's experiences while completing the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ), an instrument used to measure fear of childbirth, and to analyze the readability and applicability of the instrument within a diverse population of women in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative descriptive study using focus groups with women who were pregnant or had given birth in the last 5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Urban health center in the Detroit metropolitan area.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 22 women who participated in three focus groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Focus groups were used to collect data, which were analyzed using content analysis. The Fry Readability Graph, in computer form, was used to rate the readability of the instrument.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women in the focus groups identified many themes that were consistent with previous research. However, the women indicated many new factors that contributed to their fear that were previously unidentified by the W-DEQ, including fear of abandonment by their clinicians and fear of how the structure of the maternity care system affects care during childbirth.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings from the focus groups challenge the utility and appropriateness of the W-DEQ for use as a screening tool to identify women who are pregnant and experiencing FOC in a U.S.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Roosevelt
authors.forename: Lisa Kane
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Low
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D036801:Parturition / Q000523:psychology*; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000523:psychology; D011247:Pregnancy; D036301:Qualitative Research; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: content analysis; content validity; fear of childbirth; instrument readability; maternity care system