Introduction
Preterm babies born at less than 32 weeks of gestation are with highest mortality and morbidity. The anxiety from preterm labour induced impacts on pregnant women in biological, psychological and social aspects. This causes burden to the pregnant woman and the whole family. There are various interventions suggested to alleviate anxiety, such as providing information on infants’ prognosis and coping strategies. Maternal satisfaction is strongly correlated with staff professionalism, empathy, information and explanations provided to these women. Therefore, an educational programme was designed and the effectiveness was explored. (Ethic approval was obtained from KWC REC on 19 September 2017)
Objectives
The objectives were to alleviate anxiety of women, enhance the counselling roles of midwives, and encourage a multidisciplinary approach in promoting psychosocial well-being of these women.
Methodology
For pregnant women who were less than 32 weeks, admitted for threatened preterm delivery were recruited after written consents were obtained. Two instruments were used, one was the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), which was given when the eligible woman met the inclusion criteria on admission. Another self-reported survey was also given to participant upon discharge to explore their feelings and their level of anxiety at different stages. Analyses was performed by SPSS (version 16.0) statistical software. Paired t-test was used to compare the means of data from two pre and post test score of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory on the same participant after receiving the programme.
Results & Outcome
19 women recruited and 16 women had completed the surveys during the study period. 31.2% (5/16) was nulliparous and 68.8% (11/16) was multiparous. 31.2% (5/16) were more than 28 weeks of gestation and 68.8% (11/16) were less than 28 weeks of gestations. The mean scores of mother’s pretest measurement on STAI-form Y1 and STAI-form Y2 were 52.94 (SD=7.23) and 48.38 (SD=9.58) respectively, whereas for the posttest measurement were 46.00 (SD=8.38) and 44.06 (SD=8.97) respectively. To examine the effectiveness of educational programme, pair sample t-test was used to measure mother’s pretest and posttest performance. The mean score of STAI form-Y1 decreased by 6.94 (SD=5.62), t=4.94, p< 0.05 when compared the pretest and posttest. The mean score of STAI form-Y2 decreased by 4.31 (SD=5.36), t=3.21, p< 0.05 from pretest to posttest. The anxiety scores were significantly decreased after the counseling. For the survey, the emotions experienced by mothers were nervous (93%), anxious (75%), disappointed (75%). 15 mothers were able to expressed breast milk to baby in postnatal ward.
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