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Objective: To estimate the prevalence of a history of physical and sexual abuse in adulthood among gynecological patients and the association with general and reproductive health., Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study on abusive experiences of gynecologic outpatients in a tertiary hospital. The total sample size was 691., Results: Of all women, 42.4% had experienced moderate or severe physical or sexual abuse as an adult. One hundred forty-seven (21.6%) women reported physical abuse, 84 (12.3%) sexual abuse, and 58 (8.5%) both. The abused and nonabused women did not differ in mean age, education, or parity. Sexually abused women and those who were both sexually and physically abused reported poor general health significantly more often (P=.005 and P=.001, respectively) than the nonabused. They also rated their sex life as significantly worse than the nonabused women (P=.002 and P=.012, respectively). Over half of abused women had experienced common physical complaints during the previous 12 months compared with one third of the nonabused (P<.001). Two thirds of both the abused and the nonabused women preferred that their gynecologist not ask directly about abuse., Conclusion: Abusive experiences were common in gynecologic outpatients. Women with abusive experiences had ill health and poor sexual life more often than the controls. In contrast to the results of previous studies, most of the women did not want to be asked about abuse by their gynecologist.

Objective: To compare the prevalence and predictors of severe fear of childbirth and pregnancy-related anxiety in groups of assisted reproduction treatment (ART) and spontaneously conceiving women with singleton pregnancies., Methods: The ART group (n = 367, nulliparous 260) represented a cohort from five Finnish infertility clinics in 1999. The control group (n = 379, nulliparous 135) was enrolled in this study by consecutive sampling the same year. Fear of childbirth was assessed by means of the revised version of the Fear-of-Childbirth Questionnaire and pregnancy-related anxiety by means of the Pregnancy Anxiety Scale at gestational week 20 +/- 3.2 (mean+/-standard deviation)., Results: The frequency of severe fear of childbirth and anxiety (classified as total scores in the 90th percentile or higher in the revised Fear of Childbirth Questionnaire and Pregnancy Anxiety Scale) did not differ between the groups. Nulliparity was associated with more frequent severe anxiety only in the controls. In nulliparous participants, a partnership of more than 5 years decreased the risk of severe fear of childbirth (odds ratio 0.3, 95% confidence interval 0.2-0.7). In the nulliparous ART group, a long duration of infertility (7 or more years) increased the risk of severe fear of childbirth (odds ratio 4.4, 95% confidence interval 1.2-16.9)., Conclusion: Women conceiving after ART do not experience severe fear of childbirth or pregnancy-related axiety more often than spontaneously conceiving controls. However, a long duration of infertility is an independent risk factor regarding severe fear of childbirth., Level of Evidence: II-2.

Objective: To identify factors associated with fear of childbirth during and after first labor., Methods: We analyzed first deliveries of 100 primiparas who reported severe fear of vaginal childbirth during their second pregnancies and 200 age- and parity-matched controls who reported no later fear of delivery. The main outcome measures were previous miscarriages, participation in birth-education classes, support during labor, length of first delivery, pain relief, obstetric complications, welfare of the newborn, and time between deliveries., Results: The prevalence of emergency cesarean (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 26.9, confidence interval [CI] 11.9, 61.1) and vacuum extraction (adjusted OR 4.5, CI 2.2, 9.3) during first delivery was much higher in subjects than controls. Labor lasted longer in cases than in controls during the first (10.5 hours versus 7.8 hours, P = .016) and second stages (62 minutes versus 47 minutes, P = .002). They received epidural analgesia more often, but its timing and the amount used were not different between groups. Of the group with fear, 44% could not define any specific cause for fear and regarded the entire delivery as frightening., Conclusion: Emergency cesarean and vacuum extraction during first deliveries were associated with secondary fear of delivery. Emergency obstetric procedures cannot be avoided, so prevention of fear might require more education on causes and consequences of cesarean or vacuum extraction, eg, in birth classes and at postpartum visits.