Psychological research on childbirth is rare, even though research from other scientific fields such as obstetrics or midwifery highlights the importance of psychological factors in childbirth. In this article, the theoretical construct of a birth‐related mindset and direct and indirect measures for assessing the mindset are proposed. It is assumed that childbirth can be mentally presented as a rather natural (natural mindset) or a rather medicalized (medicalized mindset) event. In three online studies (Study 1: N = 117, Study 2: N = 206, Study 3: N = 192), we aimed to explore whether the proposed birth‐related mindset is related to the retrospectively reported process of labor and birth (operationalized, e.g., by performed interventions, duration of birth, place of birth). For this, the relation between the mothers’ birth‐related decisions and outcomes of childbirth and the mothers' birth‐related mindsets were analyzed. Results indicated that (1) birth‐related criteria such as place of birth, epidural anesthesia, and C‐sections were associated with the birth‐related mindset, (2) these aspects of the delivery were related to the evaluation of the birth (birth experience), (3) the birth‐related mindset moderated the relationship between C‐section and birth experience, and (4) the indirect measures had little to no added explanatory value to the developed Mindset and Birth Questionnaire. Thus, the results indicate that the birth process experienced by the women and the mental representations of birth (birth‐related mindset) are closely related. Future studies need to investigate to what extend the experienced birth process influences the mindset of birth, or the mindset the experienced birth process, or both.

中文翻译：

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分娩的心理方面：与出生有关的心态的证据

尽管来自其他科学领域（例如，产科或助产士）的研究突出了心理因素在分娩中的重要性，但有关分娩的心理学研究却很少。在本文中，提出了与出生有关的心态的理论构造以及评估该心态的直接和间接措施。假定分娩可以在心理上表现为相当自然的（自然的心态）或相当医学化的（医疗化的心态）事件。在三项在线研究中（研究1：N  = 117，研究2：N  = 206，研究3：N = 192），我们的目的是探讨拟议的与出生相关的思维方式是否与追溯报告的分娩和出生过程有关（可操作性，例如通过实施干预措施，出生时间，出生地点）。为此，分析了母亲与生育有关的决定和分娩结局与母亲与生育有关的心态之间的关系。结果表明（1）与出生相关的标准（例如出生地点，硬膜外麻醉和剖腹产）与与出生相关的思维方式有关，（2）分娩的这些方面与对出生的评估有关（出生）经验），（3）与出生有关的心态缓和了剖腹产与出生经历之间的关系，（4）间接测量对发达的心态和出生调查表几乎没有或没有附加的解释价值。因此，结果表明，妇女经历的分娩过程与分娩的心理表征（与分娩有关的思维方式）密切相关。未来的研究需要研究什么程度的经历的出生过程会影响出生的心态，或影响经历的出生过程的心态，或两者兼而有之。