Author(s)

Afaf Abdul-Jabar Al Sulamy¹, Shadia A. Yousuf², Hala Ahmed Thabet³

¹Department of Maternity and Child Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
²Department of Primary Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
³Woman’s Health and Midwifery Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

Background: The rate of deliveries by cesarean section (CS) is increasing worldwide. An elective cesarean section (ECS) is a cesarean section carried with or without a medical reason, in some cases choice by pregnant women. The number of women demanding for delivery by elective cesarean section is increasing in Saudi Arabia. Although CS is the commonest major surgery performed in Obstetrics throughout the world; there are still concerns about the knowledge and attitude of Saudi Pregnant women towards it. Methods: The design of this study was a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional design. The study sample consisted of 206 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic during the third trimester, selected by convenience sampling method from Maternity and Children Hospital in Jeddah City in Saudi Arabia. Structured interview questionnaire was used in this study. Different statistical procedures were used for data analysis including percentages, mean, and mean percentages. Content validity and reliability were done. Results: The majorities (78.2%) of the pregnant women have adequate level of knowledge about ECS, 14.6% of them have moderate knowledge, and only 7.3% have inadequate knowledge. Also, 137 (66.5%) of pregnant women have negative attitude toward ECS, while 58 (28.2%) have positive attitude. Conclusion and recommendations: The study concluded that there was a good level of knowledge among pregnant women about ECS in most of the instrument questions in general; except in some areas such as the bad consequences of CS. On the other hand, the majority of the pregnant women had negative attitude toward ECS. Health care provider such as doctors, nurses and midwives should provide adequate knowledge to the pregnant women about consequence of cesarean section on the mother and child. Various interventions are recommended to decline unnecessary cesarean section. These interventions need to contain changes in attitude and correcting misperceptions among pregnant women to cesarean section and normal delivery during the prenatal period.

Knowledge, Attitude, Elective Cesarean Section

Al Sulamy, A. , Yousuf, S. and Thabet, H. (2019) Knowledge and Attitude of Pregnant Women toward Elective Cesarean Section in Saudi Arabia. Open Journal of Nursing, 9, 199-208. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2019.92020.