PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Glob. Women’s Health
Sec. Maternal Health
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2025.1599249
This article is part of the Research TopicEmotionally-centred Perinatal Care, Practices and ExperiencesView all 5 articles
The importance of promoting positive childbirth experiences for women: a perspective paper Authors
Provisionally accepted
Sigfridur Inga Karlsdottir1*
Nicky Leap2- 1Professor of Midwifery, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland
- 2Adjunct Professor of Midwifery, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
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Childbirth can be a profound and transformative experience, one that embodies complex emotional challenges. Childbirth experiences can have profound and lasting consequences, both positive and negative, shaping a woman's physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. A positive childbirth experience often fosters feelings of empowerment and birth may carry a sense of accomplishment and strength into motherhood. This can enhance bonding with the baby, reduce the likelihood of postpartum depression, and contribute to an overall positive transition into parenting. Supportive environments, effective pain management, and respectful care from healthcare providers play critical roles in creating such experiences. In contrast, a negative childbirth experience can have significant adverse effects. Negative childbirth experiences caused by, for example, a lack of control, disrespectful treatment, or traumatic events during childbirth may lead to feelings of failure, fear, or even posttraumatic stress disorder. These can undermine maternal self-esteem, strain relationships, and hinder the mother-baby bond. Addressing both women's positive and negative childbirth experiences requires providing compassionate, individualised care, fostering open communication, and ensuring that all women feel heard, valued, and supported throughout their childbirth journey. Women's perspective of a positive childbirth experience and how they identify and support a positive childbirth experience is essential and something that healthcare providers should acknowledge when planning care through the childbirth period. This paper explores the significant impact of a positive childbirth experience on a woman's life. It offers perspectives on the importance of recognising and measuring women's childbirth experiences in the ongoing development of maternity service provision.
Keywords: Childbirth, empowerment, experience, positive, Women
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Karlsdottir and Leap. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sigfridur Inga Karlsdottir, Professor of Midwifery, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland
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