The effect of positive psychology based counseling on anxiety and health practices in women with unplanned pregnancy: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Abstract

Background and purpose: Women faced with unplanned pregnancy often experience anxiety related to pregnancy and child birth, and on the other hand, they are less willing to perform pregnancy care regularly and have inadequate health practices, which may lead to adverse pregnancy and childbirth outcomes. Limited studies have been conducted in relation to identifying the appropriate and effective intervention approach to reduce anxiety and improve the health practices of these mothers. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of counseling with a positive psychology approach on anxiety and health practices of women with unplanned pregnancy. Materials and methods: This randomized clinical trial study was conducted with the participation of 54 women with an unplanned pregnancy at a gestational age of 20-24 weeks in Tabriz city since august to December 2023. The participants were randomly divided into two intervention and control groups. The intervention group participated in 7 individual counseling sessions of 60-90 minutes at weekly intervals. Questionnaires of health performance, anxiety part of DASS21 questionnaire, mother-fetal attachment, Edinburgh depression and pregnancy anxiety were completed before and 4 weeks after the intervention Findings: The results of this study indicated that after counseling, the average overall anxiety score [MD:-4.71 with CI95% (-5.55 to -3.86), (P=0.001)] in the intervention group compared to the control group decreased significantly and the overall score of health functions [MD:17.99 with a CI95%(12.87 to 23.11), (P=0.001)] and maternal-fetal attachment [MD:11.04 with a CI95% (-6.67 to 14.42), (P=0.001)] significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control group and depression score[MD:3.56 with a CI95% ( -4.32 to -6.81), (P=0.001)] and pregnancy anxiety [MD:6.67 with CI95%(-8.20 to -5.13), (P=0.001)] in the intervention group was significantly reduced compared to the control group. Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicated the effect of counseling based on the positive psychology approach on reducing anxiety , and deoression and improving health-related practices and maternal-fetal attachment in women with unplanned pregnancies. Therefore, it is recommended psychological interventions based on positive psychology in order to promote mental health and health related pracicesof mothers with unplanned pregnancy.