Abstract
Background
Prenatal stress is a pressing issue. However, there is a lack of robust evidence for psychosocial interventions to manage this problem.
Aims
This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention on reducing prenatal stress compared to participation in health education groups.
Methods
A randomized controlled trial was conducted in a prenatal clinic of comprehensive tertiary care from April to October 2017. A total of 108 pregnant women were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group. Participants completed self-report measures of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, fatigue, positive and negative affect, and mindfulness before, immediately after, and 15 weeks after the 4-week intervention period. Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the intervention outcomes.
Results
The results supported greater improvement in terms of perceived stress (Wald χ2=26.94, p<0.001), fatigue (Wald χ2=17.61, p<0.001), positive affect (Wald χ2=9.03, p = 0.011), negative affect (Wald χ2=11.37, p = 0.003), and mindfulness (Wald χ2=24.97, p<0.001) in the intervention group than in the control group.
Conclusions
The self-help mindfulness intervention decreased prenatal stress and negative affect and improved positive affect and mindfulness.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the participants for their time and efforts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author contributions
Xuan Zhang and Pingzhen Lin contributed equally to this paper. The manuscript preparation was performed by Xuan Zhang. The collection of data was performed by Pingzhen Lin. The analysis of data was performed by Pingzhen Lin, Jiwei Sun, Yaoyao Sun, Danfeng Cao, Xuan Zhang. Di Shao interpreted the data and provided intellectual input. FengLin Cao contributed to the design of the study. All the authors have approved the final draft