Maternal stress among pregnant women in a birth cohort in Harare, Zimbabwe
Journal Title: IOSR Journal of Nursing and health Science - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 3
Abstract
Although beneficial strides have been made in making Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV protocols accessible to pregnant women, mental health issues such as maternal stress have received limited attention. The purpose of this pilot study was to characterize the prevalence, causes and ways of coping with maternal stress among HIV positive and HIV negative pregnant women in a birth cohort in Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a purposive sample of 15 HIV positive pregnant women and a control group of 15 HIV negative pregnant women from 3 antenatal clinics in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure maternal stress. Data were collected through face to face interviews and use of participants’ medical records. Raw data were analyzed using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) software package. Bivariate analyses (specifically the 2 independent sample Student’s t-test and Fischer exact tests) were conducted. A p value of ≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Ages of participants were from 18 to 43 years. Mean age was 28.1 (SD 7.1). The prevalence of maternal stress was higher (46.7%) among HIV positive pregnant women. There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of women with maternal stress when HIV positive and HIV negative women were compared (p=0.256). Only the average monthly family income was statistically significantly associated with maternal stress (p=<0.001). The majority, 17 (56.7%) of participants cited financial problems to be the cause of maternal stress. Nineteen (63.3%) adopted the avoidant ways of coping with stress. Further studies with larger sample sizes are recommended with a view of developing effective strategies to reduce maternal stress as well as promoting adaptive coping mechanisms among pregnant women.
Authors and Affiliations
Rudo Nyamakura, Clara Maphosa Haruzivishe, Simbarashe Rusakaniko, Kerina Duri, Asaph Ziruma, Babill Stray-Pedersen
Keywords
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- EP ID EP435999
- DOI 10.9790/1959-0703037074.
- Views 181
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