Multicentre study on stress coping strategies and vaginal/caesarean birth opinions among medical students

Background: Polish perinatal care is facing a high and increasing caesarean birth (CB) rate, which is at 43%. Stress coping strategies among professionals can be important factors in the decision-making for CB. Study aimed to identify opinions associated with a birth route and stress coping strategies. Methods. This cross-sectional, exploratory study included 748 Polish medical students and aimed to identify opinions associated with a birth route and stress coping strategies among medical students. A descriptive questionnaire was distributed online. Group comparisons were performed using Welch’s t -test for continuous data or the χ 2 test for categorical data. Spearman’s ρ coefficient was used. Results. Statistically, first- and second-year students thought that every woman can choose vaginal birth (VB) or CB. Students in their final years of study considered that VB is more beneficial for women at low risk of VB-related complications. The respondents who reported that VB is safer, women recover faster after it, and women should not be able to choose VB/CB on their own exhibited statistically significantly lower helplessness levels and greater use of religion as a stress coping strategy. Those who were more helpless and less religious were also less convinced of the safety of VB, believed in faster recovery after CB and expressed that the woman herself should decide how to give birth. Conclusion. Stress coping strategies seem to be related to the understanding of the childbirth process and the set of attitudes connected with it. Helplessness and religiosity turned out to be the most important factors in this area. The connection between helplessness (stress coping strategy) and estimation of greater pain during VB than CB obtained in our research, is a phenomenon that may lead students with these characteristics to prefer and recommend CB in their future practice.