Psychometric properties of the Confidence and Trust in Delivery Questionnaire (CTDQ): a pilot study

A pilot validation study of 221 women 6 weeks before childbirth was conducted in Germany between October 2007 and June 2008. To detect structural relations between the items, factor and reliability analyses were applied to the CTDQ items. Factor analysis was performed by means of principal components analysis and varimax rotation. Internal reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. External validation was performed using the sense of coherence (SOC) scale.The CTDQ comprises of 11 items. We found a 4-factor structure. The internal consistency of the whole item pool (Cronbach’s α = 0.79) and the 4 subscales [confidence in labor (α = 0.82); partner’s support (α = 0.62); trust in medical competency (α = 0.68); being informed (α = 0.60)] can be regarded as sufficient or even excellent. The 4 factors explained 69.6% of total variance. Except for a high intercorrelation (0.70) between “partner’s support” and “trust in medical competence”, the subscales show low intercorrelations, indicating an adequate independence of the respective subscales. Regarding the external validity we found minor respective moderate correlations with the SOC scale.Our data suggest that the CTDQ is a useful instrument to assess confidence and trust in delivery. With 4 clinically relevant dimensions, the CTDQ is now open for further studies in the field of labor.The expectation of childbirth is a fundamental experience in a woman’s life. There is no doubt that pregnant women fear the intense pain of giving birth and the feeling that something might go wrong. Expectations do vary among women with respect to her social status, educational level, previous experience with childbirth and the level of available information on childbearing [1-4]. Independent of those dimensions, both qualitative research and quantitative evaluations have identified a variety of factors, which seem to have important meaning for expectant mothers. According to a literature review by Hodnett in 2002 [5], trust, confidence