Online Pain Neuroscience Education For Fear Of Childbirth.

Cardenal Herrera University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Fear of Childbirth

Treatments: Other: Pain neuroscience education; Other: Prenatal education

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07471269

UNIVERSITY CARDENAL HERRERA-71

Details and patient eligibility

About

Fear of childbirth ranges from mild worry to severe anxiety and affects women of all ages. It is often linked to perceiving childbirth as unpredictable and painful. Women cope by seeking support, practicing relaxation, or attending prenatal education, with information playing a key role in reducing anxiety and increasing confidence.

Pain neuroscience education has shown benefits in reducing pain, anxiety, and related fears by teaching the neurobiological mechanisms underlying pain.

Full description

Fear of childbirth is a psychological condition that can range from mild fear to extreme anxiety about childbirth. It can affect women of all ages, whether they are pregnant or not, and is often associated with the perception of childbirth as an unpredictable and painful process.

To cope with this fear, many women seek emotional and professional support, practice relaxation techniques, or participate in prenatal education. In this context, access to appropriate information can help reduce anxiety and strengthen confidence, promoting more positive childbirth experiences.

Among educational strategies, education in the neuroscience of pain has gained increasing attention in recent years due to its positive effects on reducing pain, pain catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, anxiety, and depression. This approach is based on reconceptualizing pain through the teaching of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the pain experience.

Enrollment: 400 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women over 18 years of age, primiparous or multiparous.
• At the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy

Exclusion criteria

• Multiple pregnancies.
• Previous spinal surgery.
• Psychiatric disorders.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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400 participants in 2 patient groups

Pain neuroscience education (PNE)

Experimental group

Description:

The patients in the intervention group will receive, in addition to the prenatal educational content, the 12 PNE lessons in audiovisual format. Each lesson will last between 10-15 minutes. The contents of PNE will be an adaptation, focused on the context of a pregnant woman, of the Butler \& Moseley postulates. These contents have already been previously adapted according to the nature of the patients' pain, both in chronic pain and in acute pain. In summary, the participants will receive a detailed explanation about the biopsychosocial component of pain through the use of diagrams, metaphors and practical examples. In turn, the objectives of this program could be summarized as: (1) Reformulate erroneous beliefs about pain, (2) Inform about the biology and protective nature of pain and (3) Provide techniques to reduce kinesiophobia and, consequently, promote physical activity, with the beneficial effect it entails for patients with pain.

Treatment:

Other: Prenatal education

Other: Pain neuroscience education

Prenatal education (PE)

Experimental group

Description:

Patients assigned to the PE group will receive different content on standard PE based on the Pregnancy and Postpartum Clinical Practice Guide, consisting of general information about pregnancy (visits and monitoring of pregnancy, diet, phases of delivery, lactation, etc.), as well as specific recommendations for lumbopelvic pain associated with pregnancy. These contents will be developed by midwives from the participating hospitals. Participants will receive 12 educational sessions, with an estimated duration of 10 minutes each.

Treatment:

Other: Prenatal education