The Effect of Narrative Writing on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress of Pregnant Women

Pregnancy is considered a period of emotional crisis. However, attention to the mental status of a pregnant mother is often neglected by health care providers. This study was conducted to determine the effect of narrative writing on the depression, anxiety, and stress of pregnant women referring to the pregnancy care clinics in the south health centers affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran.

The research was a quasi-experimental field trial. A total of 120 eligible pregnant women referring to the south health centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were recruited by convenience sampling method. The health records of pregnant women were assessed at each center and the eligible subjects were identified. The sampling was performed during one week for the experimental group and during the next week for the control group. Mothers in the experimental group were asked to write a narrative about their deep thoughts and feelings, twice a week for two months according to the given instructions. The mothers in the control group received routine care. At first, both groups completed the Beck depression inventory and depression, anxiety, and stress scale 21 before the intervention. Then, at 4 and 8 weeks after the intervention, both groups just completed depression, anxiety, and stress scale 21. The obtained data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney test, Chi-squared test, two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS V. 22. The significance level was set as 0.5 or less.

Pre-intervention levels of anxiety, stress, and depression were similar in both groups. Four weeks after the intervention, the variables of depression (P=0.014) and anxiety (P=0.004) were significantly reduced in the experimental group, but no statistically significant difference was found for the stress variable in this time interval. Finally, a significant decrease was observed in all three variables as the intervention continued for 8 weeks (P<0.001).

According to the results, the narrative writing could be used as a simple and low-cost method for reducing anxiety, stress, and depression in pregnant women.