By Jenny Hope
Classes on birth techniques involving breathing, relaxation and massage make no difference to women's experience of labour, claim researchers.
Antenatal programmes focusing on "natural" techniques did not cut rates of Caesarean births, or cases where forceps were required to assist delivery, the study found.
Pain-relieving epidural injections were needed for pregnant women who had attended these classes just as often as for those given standard antenatal classes.
The findings will come as a blow to thousands of expectant mothers who, keen to increase their chances of a natural birth, learn yoga breathing exercises and self-hypnosis while their partners are taught to massage them during labour.
Professor Philip Steer, editor-in-chief of BJOG: An international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, which is publishing the Swedish research, said: "The findings of this study are contrary to what many of us would expect.
"The lack of benefit is disappointing, and suggests that parents' experience of childbirth is affected more by their personality and previous psychological orientation than by the relatively limited training that is possible during pregnancy.
"An alternative view is that standard antenatal classes are 'good enough' and therefore represent an effective use of limited resources."
The study, which involved 1 087 first-time mothers and 1 064 of their partners, was run by the Department for Woman and Child Health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden between January 2006 and May 2007. Participants were randomised into two groups for antenatal classes.
The "natural" group focused on teaching the women and their partners relaxation, breathing and psychological coping techniques.
The standard care group were provided with information about childbirth and parenting, modelled on the Swedish antenatal education programme.
The researchers anticipated that those in the "natural" group would have fewer Caesareans, epidurals and instrumental deliveries. But, the epidural rate was 52 percent and the spontaneous birth rate 66 percent in both groups.
The Caesarean rate was 20 percent in the "natural" group and 21.5 percent in the standard group. The instrumental delivery rate was 14 percent in the "natural" group and 12 percent in the standard group. British reaction to the study was muted, with the National Childbirth Trust saying it was impossible to tell how the Swedish experience compared with that in Britain.
Belinda Phipps, the parenting charity's chief executive, said: "This limited study in Sweden compares two slightly different types of antenatal education and does not look at the more common situation in the UK which is no or limited antenatal preparation. - Daily Mail