Efficacy of Individual Supportive Counseling on Stress Caused by COVID-19 in Pregnant Women

Pregnant women experience some levels of stress during pregnancy. COVID-19 was able also increase their stress. This study performed to evaluate the efficacy of supportive counseling on stress caused by COVID-19 in pregnant women.

This clinical trial performed on 97 pregnant women 49 in the intervention and 48 in the control group) referred to comprehensive healthcare centers of Gorgan, Iran in 2021. Data collection tools included an electronic questionnaire containing demographic, fertility-related data, and questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the coronavirus stress scale. The intervention group received three supportive counseling sessions by 60-90 minutes weekly. The control group received only routine pregnancy care. Data were analyzed by independent t-test, Chi-square test, and Fisher's exact tests using SPSS (version 24).

The results showed that before the intervention, there was no significant difference in the mean score of stress in the intervention group (48.28 ± 5.976) and the control group (47.08 ± 5.158) (P=0.258). However, four weeks after the intervention, the mean score of stress in the intervention group (41.77±5.296) had a significant decrease compared to the control group (46.29±5.220) (P˂0.001).

The level of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic is high and providing supportive counseling can reduce pregnancy-specific stress and increase healthy behaviors. Supportive counseling can be used as an effective way to reduce the adverse consequences of stress during pregnancy.