The effect of support person presence on the Primiparous female's anxiety admitted to the Gynecology Ward of the Bank Melli Iran Hospital during year 2016 to 2017

Pregnancy and childbirth are stages of life that cause a lot of anxiety, especially in people, who experience them for the first time, and they are accompanied with changes in physical, psychological, economic, social, and sexual systems, which create problems for the mother and the baby in different ways. To deal with such anxieties, several coping models are needed and one of them is the presence of a support person. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of support person presence on the the anxiety of primiparous pregnant females.
In the present study, 70 primiparous pregnant females were selected using the convenience sampling method. They were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups by the coin flipping method. In the intervention group, an intervention of the support person presence was used and in the control group, no intervention was used and only the usual hospital measures were taken. The research tool was the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Independent t-test and covariance analysis were used to analyze the data.
The results showed that the means of state anxiety variable decreased from 51.74 to 34.54 (by about 57%) through the intervention and the mean of trait anxiety variable decreased from 49.17 to 39.69 (by about 50%) through the intervention. After the intervention, the weighted mean of anxiety variable decreased from 100.91 to 71.23 (by about 60%). The intervention resulted in a significant reduction in state and trait anxiety scores (P Given the above results, it can be concluded that support person presence was effective in reducing the anxiety of primiparous females and decreased their state and trait anxiety. Therefore, it is suggested to consider some facilities for pregnant females to be accompanied by a support person in hospitals and maternity hospitals.