Tehran University of Medical Sciences Journal of Family and Reproductive Health 1735-8949 11 3 2017 11 06 159 164 EN Sakineh Dadipoor Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran Mitra Mehraban Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fertility and Infertility Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran Teamur Aghamolaei Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran Ali Ramezankhani Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali Safari-Moradabadi Social Development & Health Promotion Research Center, School of Public Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran; Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2017 05 24 2017 08 27 Objective: To anticipate the type of childbirth according to the health belief model. Materials and methods: The present cross-sectional research was conducted on 222 primiparous women visiting the healthcare center in Khorram Abad. A combination of simple randomization and clustering was used to do the sampling. The data collection instrument was a validated four-part questionnaire the first part of which contained demographic information. The second part was comprised of awareness questions while the third dealt with the constructs of the health belief model. The final part consisted of the behavioral intention derived from the logical action theory. SPSS 16 was used to statistically analyze the data and the significance level was set at p ˂ 0.05. Results: The average age of the participants was 27.40 ± 6.07 years. Intention to go for a vaginal birth showed to be significantly correlated with awareness, perceived sensitivity, intensity, barriers and benefits (p ˂ 0.001) as well as self-efficacy (p = 0.025). The best predictor of the type of childbirth turned out to be the perceived barriers (OR = 1.153, p ˂ 0.001) and only then awareness (OR = 1.108, p ˂ 0.001). Conclusion: Strategies to remove the barriers of preferring vaginal childbirth, raising women’s awareness of the side effects of C-section and the benefits of vaginal birth, strategies to enhance women’s beliefs in their capability of natural childbirth can be used to reduce the prevalence of unnecessary C-sections.   https://jfrh.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jfrh/article/view/615 https://jfrh.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jfrh/article/download/615/395