Anxiety during pregnancy after the Chernobyl accident as related to obstetric outcome

Abstract

Eighty-six primiparous women in early gestation at the time of the Chernobyl accident (pregnancy week 0–9) were examined with regard to psychic and somatic anxiety proneness, locus of control, impact of events and anxiety related to the Chernobyl accident. After delivery, obstetric data were assembled from hospital records. All the children were born healthy and none of the women had a preterm delivery. However, the duration of pregnancies was shorter in women prone to high psychic and somatic anxiety (r = – 0.23 and r = – 0.26, p < 0.05, respectively). Women with high scores in psychic anxiety proneness and on the Impact of Events Scale had a shorter period of labor (r = – 0.20, p = 0.05, and r = – 0.36, p < 0.01). Contraction stimulation (oxytocin) was applied more often to women with low anxiety scores and, hence, the actual association between low anxiety and long period of labor is likely to be stronger than indicated by the present data. The results support the view that psychological factors play a role in obstetric outcome, and the findings are discussed in terms of individual differences in psychophysiological reactivity.