Set up of the statistical study


A statistical survey has been conducted in 2017 by submitting a questionnaire to two groups of women. The two groups were homogeneous in Body Mass Index (BMI) and in age at the moment of child delivery:

  • the first group, the experimental group, called ‘TSB sample’, composed of 115 mothers, has followed  the Taddei Smart Birth athletic training program and has applied  the Taddei Smart Birth delivery method during child delivery;
    88% of women are Italian; 76,5% have a university Degree/Master’s/PhD; the average age is 34.6 ± 4.2; the average weight of the first pregnancy is kg 57.7 ± 9.4 and 68.4 ± 10 at the end of the pregnancy; the average height of the women we interviewed is 166 ± 5.8 cm; the average Body Mass Index (BMI) is 20.8 ± 2.7.
  • the second group, the control group, called ‘CC sample’, composed of 104 mothers, has, at least, followed the pre-delivery course offered by the national healthcare services (ASL).
    67% have a university Degree/Master’s/PhD; the average age is 34.4 ± 4.1; the average weight of the first pregnancy is kg 58.1 ± 8.3 and kg 67.7 ± 8.1 at the end of the pregnancy; the average height of the women we interviewed is 167 ± 5.6 cm; the average Body Mass Index (BMI) is 20.8 ± 2.5.

The TSB sample has a disadvantage due to 68,7% was made up of  woman giving birth for the first time and only 43,3% of control group CC was made up of primiparae too.
Considering the fact that childbirth in primiparae is usually more difficult and longer and that there are many more women giving birth for the first time in experimental group TSB, it can be hypothesized that if the two groups had been homogeneous regarding  this parameter, there would have been a wider range of variation between the two groups in favour of experimental group TSB.

All the women of both groups have given birth to their children in facility-based locations, mainly in Florence, Italy.

All the women belonging to both groups have not planned a caesarean section and the onset of labour was spontaneous or induced.

Two different scales have been used for the statistical survey: a Likert scale with 5 items , (with the following scores: 1= ‘not at all’, 2=’not much’, 3= ‘fairly’, 4= ‘very’, 5= ‘very much‘) and a V.A.S. scale 0-10.

 

Contributors to the study:

Elena Taddei is a coach, and holds university degrees in Sports Sciences and Education. 14 years ago she founded the Mamme in Movimento prenatal course. She has conducted in-depth studies on biomechanics in delivery, and has developed a new delivery method. Since 4 years she has been a teacher at the University of Florence, faculty of Sports Science: the title of her course is “Programme for physical preparation to pregnancy and natural delivery”. She is the mother of two children, born with natural, easy and fast deliveries. She has practised sports at a professional level (ski and artistic gymnastics) and has trained some female artistic gymnasts.

Mauro Maltagliati is professor of Economic Statistics at the University of Florence (Italy), have over 20 years of experience in RDBMS, such as Oracle and Microsoft Access (all the releases) and has been the developer of several datawarehouses for private and public institutions. Teacher for the University of Florence of Economic Statistics and informatics subjects, such as relational databases, spreadsheets, and specific statistics and mathematical softwares.

This is a scientific site for information purposes. Anyone interested in examining some of the topics dealt with can directly contact Dr. Elena Taddei.