Stress and anxiety in pregnancy

ABSTRACT

Pregnancy causes psychosocial changes and every one shows a different reaction to them. Generally, pregnancy is a highly stressful period and pregnant women are very sensitive in this period. This study has targeted at defining the rate of stress and anxiety in pregnancy in women referred to Isfahan hospitals. This is a descriptive, cross sectional study. Samples were 301 women that had delivered in past 24 hours. Data collection was done by a reliable questionnaire that measured stress of life events [holms and raheh checklist] as well as a pregnancy related anxiety questionnaire and hospital documents. Data were analyzed with SPSS soft ware. The findings showed that 19.27% of samples were in middle stress group and 25.58% were in high stress group. 12.29%were in middle anxiety group and 87.21% were in low anxiety group. On the basis of the results, educating pregnant women, their family and health managers about stress coping methods, positive and negative emotions in pregnancy and how to react with them are highly suggested