THE EFFECT OF GROUP COUNSELING ON THE PREGNANCY EXPERIENCE IN PRIMIGRAVIDA WOMEN: AN INTERVENTIONAL STUDY

Pregnancy has significant physical and psychological effects on mothers, leading to pleasant or unpleasant experiences, especially if it is their first labor. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of group counseling on the experience of primigravida women referred to to health centers in Urmia city, Iran in 2019-2020.

This study was a clinical trial one. Eighty primigravida women who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study were randomly selected by inconvenient sampling method from the Urmia Health Centers in three social levels of wealthy, less wealthy, and on marginals of the city, and were divided into two groups of control (40 people) and intervention (40 people). In the pre-test stage, the questionnaires of demographic-medical, general health (GHQ-28), pregnancy experience (PES) were completed by the participants. Both groups received routine care of the health center. In addition to routine care, the intervention group took six sessions (each for two hours) of group counseling for six weeks. Finally, the post-test was completed two weeks after the first intervention. Results were analyzed by SPSS-22 software using Shapirovilks test for data normality as well as independent t-test, paired t-test, chi-square, and analysis of covariance with a significance level of less than 0.05.

The two groups were consistent regarding demographic variables. According to the descriptive findings, the average score of the total pregnancy experience before the intervention was 15.83 in the intervention group and 17.28 in the control group, which was not statistically significant (P>0.05). However, after the intervention, it was 41.8 in the intervention group and 17.95 in the control group, which were significantly different (P<0.05). The average score of pleasant pregnancy experience before the intervention in the intervention group was 27.73 and the control group was 31.47, which was not statistically significant (P>0.05), but after the intervention it was 41.95 in the intervention group and 41.95 in the control group. The control was 32.92, which had a significant difference (P<0.05). The mean score of unpleasant pregnancy experience before the intervention was 11.90 in the intervention group and 14.2 in the control group, which were not statistically significant (P>0.05), but after the intervention it was 0.16 in the intervention group and 14.98 in the control group, which had a statistically significant difference (P<0.05).

Group counseling reduces unpleasant experiences and increases pleasant experiences during pregnancy. Therefore, it is suggested that midwives should be performed group counseling along with routine care in health care centers.