Agerie Mengistie Zeleke*, Gashaw Melkie Bayeh
Background: Stress during pregnancy has serious adverse effects on both the mother and new-born. Pregnancy is an emotional, physical, and stressful event in a woman’s life that needs a huge psychological adjustment. However, this problem doesn’t get adequate attention during antenatal care in Ethiopia. Thus, this study is aimed to assess the status of perceived stress and associated factors among pregnant women during antenatal care at Gondar town governmental health institutions, northeast, Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was employed among 425 pregnant mothers from October 25 to December 30, 2020. A systematic random sampling was used to select participants. The status of perceived stress of participants is assessed by 11 perceived stress scales (PSS 11). Data were collected using a structured pretested questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-Data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for further analysis. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with the status of perceived stress during pregnancy.`
Findings: The prevalence of perceived stress during pregnancy was 27.1% (95% CI; 68.6- 77.2)). Antenatal care follow-up <16 weeks of 42 gestation (AOR: 4.35, 95% CI; (2.66-7.12)), not having family emotional support (AOR: 2.38, 95% CI; (1.38-4.10)), recent family death participants’ family members (AOR: 2.06, 95% CI; (1.17-3.60)) and fear of exposure to coronavirus (AOR: 1.93, 95% CI; (1.22-3.32)) were factors that increased perceived stress during the pregnancy.
Conclusions: The prevalence of perceived stress during pregnancy was high in the study area. Therefore, it is crucial for the ministry of health to incorporate screening the status of pregnancy perceived stress into basic antenatal care in assessment tools. Assessing the level of perceived stress and provision of emotional support for pregnant women is very crucial. Pregnant women who had a positive screening test were link to a psychiatrist for re-evaluation and management
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