Effect of Behavioral Group Therapy on Childbirth Fear and Anxiety in Pregnant Women

During pregnancy, fear of childbirth and anxiety is a major problem for pregnant women. The main reasons are the personality of pregnant women, the lack of pain, watching or hearing tolerance of other people's experiences and concerns about adverse health complications. Fear of childbirth among women who have already experienced childbirth and women who are experiencing their first pregnancy is different, as primiparous women will experience a higher level of fear, which may be due to lack of previous experience. Fear is an important issue in terms of both research and theory, because it plays a role in many processes involved in many other psychological disorders. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of behavioral group therapy on the fear of childbirth and anxiety in pregnant women in district 5 in Tehran. This study used a two-group pretest-post quasi-experimental design. The population of the research is pregnant women who referred to Sina hospital in district 5 of Tehran. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 30 participants. The participants were assigned experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The research instrument was Spielberger's anxiety. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the research hypotheses. Based on the results of the current study, the intervention method had a statistically significant effect on childbirth fear (F = 20.12 p <0.05 and anxiety in pregnant women (F =11.71 p=<0.041). In control group, the mean of anxiety scores was (107.53) in the pretest and (96.53) in the posttest. In the experimental group, the mean of distress scores was (66.60) in the pretest and (35.66) in posttest respectively. The fear of childbirth and disability scores was (54.06) in the pre-tests and post-test (53.66) in the post-test in the control group. The pretest (32.60) in the posttest in the experimental group respectively. Behavioral group therapy reduces the fear of childbirth and anxiety in pregnant women. Thus, the method is recommended.