A study of the effects of physiological parturition training on pregnant women's stress and mental health

Abstract

Background and Objective: Pregnancy and the period afterward are accompanied by major psychological and physiological changes. Stress in pregnancy can be associated with poor prenatal results and adverse repercussions for the health of the mother. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of physiological parturition training on stress and mental health of pregnant women. Methodology: As a two-group, randomized clinical trial, the present study was conducted on 50 pregnant women visiting Kermanshah-based health-care centers and Motazedi Hospital in 2015. The samples were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was provided with eight 90-min training sessions, from which the control group was excluded from the study. For data collection, a researcher-made demographic questionnaire, the depression anxiety stress scale-21, and the general health questionnaire-28 were utilized. Moreover, the three questionnaires were distributed to both groups in the pretest and posttest. To analyze data, the Levene's test, analysis of covariance, and Kolmogorov–Smirnov test were employed in the which were filled out by the participants in a pretest-posttest design. Data analysis was performed in SPSS, version 20, using analysis of covariance. Results: Given the findings of the present study as well as the difference between the mean scores before and after receiving the physiological parturition training (measuring 13 and 7.4, respectively), it was concluded that the said training was efficacious in the alleviation of stress in pregnancy (P