Psychological Well-being and Perceived Stress among Antenatal Mothers

Pregnancy is a beautiful period in a woman’s life, but it also brings a fair amount of stress on her part. The study was conducted to fulfil the aim of assessing Psychological well-being and Perceived stress among antenatal mothers in selected communities in Sonitpur district of Assam. Non-experimental cross-sectional quantitative research approach was used in the present study to accomplish the objectives. Purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the sub-centers and all the antenatal mothers available during data collection period and fulfilling inclusion criteria were taken for the study. Data was collected from thirty-two (32) antenatal mothers who were residing in selected community areas of Sonitpur district of Assam. Written informed consent was taken from the participants who fulfilled the sample selection criteria. Clarifications were made regarding the main purpose of the study before the administration of tools. The study was undertaken with the permission of the FRC and Institute Ethics Committee of LGB Regional Institute of Mental health (LGBRIMH), Tezpur. A socio-demographic proforma, Psychological General Well-being Schedule (PGWB), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to collect the data. The collected data were analyzed using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The findings showed that the majority of the antenatal mothers (78.1%) were of the Hinduism religion and 53.1% of them were living in a Joint family. The majority (81.3%) considered their Husband as their immediate support system. The majority (81.3%) of the respondents were in 13-28 weeks of their pregnancy. The majority of the participants (81.3%) were not having history of complications in the previous pregnancies. Most of the participants (53.1%) had a planned pregnancy. In the present study, no significant association was found between Psychological General Well-being and Perceived Stress with selected Socio-demographic variables. In the present study a negative correlation (r= -0.454 and p<0.01) was found between Psychological General Well-being and Perceived Stress. Pregnancy always means a change for a woman. These changes may contribute to the stress among pregnant women. The study showed that higher perceived stress in pregnant women can cause lower psychological well-being. The promotion of well-being will therefore be enhancing maternal health, which in turn will have a positive effect on the baby.