This research was carried out to examine the effect of the “Preparing for Birth and Parenting” lesson on the fear of childbirth and traumatic birth perception in senior nursing students.

The research is a single group intervention research with a pre- post test design. The sample of the study consisted of 62 female students who took the “Preparing for Childbirth and Parenting” lesson and studying in the 4th grade of a university nursing department. The data of the research were collected with the Demographic Information Form, Childbirth Fear – Prior to Pregnancy Scale and Scale of Traumatic Birth Perception. The students were pretested with data collection forms in the first week of the course at the beginning of the semester. During the semester, 2 hours a week, 16 weeks lessons with students were taught by the researcher. At the end of the semester, data collection forms were re-applied to the students as post-test.

As a result of the research, the average age of the students was determined as 22.3±0.7. When the students were asked which method they would like to give their own births, 67.7% stated as a normal birth and 21.1% stated as a normal birth with epidural anesthesia. The mean score of the “Childbirth Fear – Prior to Pregnancy Scale” scale before training was calculated as 41.7±8.3 and 37.7 ± 9.4 after education, and the difference was found to be statistically significant. The mean scores of the “Traumatic Birth Perception Scale” before the the lesson was calculated as 70.2±22.6, and after the lesson was 61.7 ±25.9 and the difference was found to be statistically significant.

The study revealed that the lesson of childbirth and parenting lesson reduces students’ fear of childbirth and traumatic birth perception.