A Psychoeducational Intervention in Prenatal Classes: Positive Effects on Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and Temporal Focus in Birth Attendants

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have reported associations between high maternal anxiety, temporal perceptions during pregnancy, and a poor sense of self-efficacy. One type of anxiety expecting mothers experience is associated with childbirth, which previous studies have shown can be reduced by antenatal training. Recent contributions have pointed out that current prenatal courses, while providing important and useful knowledge, do not devote sufficient content to the mental health of the parturient and to the psychological issues that can arise before and after the birth. Methods: In total, 80 pregnant women were provided with a special prepartum course in which ample space was devoted to topics such as maternal mental health, parenting skills and couple relationship, relaxation techniques, and assertiveness. Perception of threat, state anxiety, temporal focus, needs and expectations, and self-efficacy were assessed by comparing this psychoeducational intervention group with a traditional antenatal course group (n = 80), and a control group (n = 80). Two-way mixed ANOVAS (3 × 2) were performed for each dependent variable considered, including the time variable (pre-course–post-course) as a factor within the participants and the group variable as a factor between the subjects. Results: The psychoeducational intervention actually induced significant and positive changes primarily on four dimensions: state anxiety, perceived self-efficacy, the need for information, and reassurance of the pregnant women who participated in this trial. Conclusions: The study suggests improving the quality of prenatal classes by paying particular attention to the content and communication used within the group, in order to gratify at the highest level, the need for information, reassurance, and sharing that characterize the parturient’s request for support. The evidence collected recommends further replicating the intervention protocol described in order to improve the psychophysical well-being of women in a delicate moment such as pregnancy and preparation for childbirth, but especially in terms of the prevention and containment of the risks of psychological distress that currently affect a significant number of women after childbirth.

The Influence of Psychophysical Preparation of Pregnant Women on the Outcome of Childbirth and Postpartum Recovery

“…They are emotionally stronger, so they have a lower level of anxiety [7] than the control group. Women who attended a course with psychoeducational characterization were more focused on the present, while thoughts focused on the past and focusing on the future were significantly reduced [8].…”

“…Importantly, the intervention included simulationbased childbirth education, and mindfulness training involving both pregnant women, and their support partners, which is the highlight of the program. [8] A non-randomized quasi-experimental study Italy 240…”

An Overview of Pregnancy Education: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Web of Science Core Collection

“…In the co-word analysis of studies on pregnant education, the most frequently used keywords are prenatal education (Gagnon & Sandall, 2007;Gatti, 2008;Noel-Weiss et al, 2006;Shimpuku et al, 2022), pregnancy (Castillo et al , 2022;Diotaiuti et al, 2022;Shimpuku et al, 2022), breastfeeding (Brocato et al, 2022;Oggero & Wardell, 2022;Taha et al, 2022); prenatal care (Castillo et al, 2022;Dhanasekaran et al, 2022; Kabukcuoğlu, 2022;Iwanowicz-Palus et al, 2022;Smeltzer et al, 2022). Based on this, pregnant education is primarily highlighted as the most general word in the key words of the studies conducted on pregnant education.…”

“…When the literature on the subject is examined, it is seen that the studies are generally related to pregnancy (Bostan & Kabukcuoglu, 2022;Castillo et al, 2022;Shimpuku et al, 2022), prenatal care (Das et al, 2022;Iwanowicz-Palus et al, 2022;Zbiri et al, 2021), depression (Shimpuku et al, 2022;Wu & Wang, 2022;Zhang et al, 2021), social support (McCormack et al, 2021Rayburn & Coatsworth, 2021), self-sufficiency (Bostan & Kabukcuoglu, 2022;Diotaiuti et al, 2022;Eidouzaei et al, 2022), fear of childbirth (Buran & Aksu, 2022;Eidouzaei et al, 2022;Gökçe İşbir et al, 2022), anxiety (Diotaiuti et al, 2022;Gargari et al, 2021;Iwanowicz-Palus et al, 2022), obesity (Hurst et al, 2021;Ortiz-Felix et al, 2021), breastfeeding (Bookhart et al, 2021;Oggero & Wardell, 2022;Taha et al, 2022), parenting (Abbass-Dick et al, 2017, postpartum care (Gagnon & Sandall, 2007;Hunter et al, 2009), quality improvement (Hurst et al, 2021;Louis-Jacques et al, 2020;Takako, 2020).…”

Kaleidoscope of emotions in hospital childbirth: A phenomenological study

“…They could be addressed in advance during childbirth preparation classes (e.g. through training in relaxation and coping techniques, birth planning and education on informed decision making), and taken into account at the time of childbirth (AlSomali et al, 2023; Bostan and Kabukcuoğlu, 2022; Diotaiuti et al, 2022; Howarth and Swain, 2019). It would also be of value if both women and professionals tried to accept the need to express the negative feelings of women in childbirth.…”