Objective: The study aims to investigate the level of knowledge and level of expected services about natural childbirth of midwives in southern Thailand.
Research design: Descriptive research
Materials and methods: Subjects consisted of 300 midwives working in the 14 provinces of southern Thailand. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire containing items asking about the knowledge and the expected services about natural childbirth. The reliability of test items relating to the two variables in the research instrument were 0.74 and 0.81, respectively. The collected data were analyzed for correlation using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment coefficient correlation test for correlation.
Results: It was found that the mean level of overall knowledge about natural childbirth was very high (X = 25.09, S.D. = 3.62). Regarding the expected services about natural childbirth, it was found that the overall mean was at a high level (X = 112.59, S.D. = 11.76). It was also found that the correlation between knowledge and the expected services about natural childbirth of midwives was statistically and positively significant at a moderate level (r = 0.58, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Results from the present study are beneficial to hospital administrators and related
personnel in making policy on providing natural childbirth services in the south of Thailand. Midwives had a very high level of overall knowledge about natural childbirth. They also had a high level of overall expected services about natural childbirth.