Prenatal stress is associated with negative outcomes such as postpartum depression, prematurity or neurodevelopmental delays. The aim of this study is to implement a psychological therapy to reduce stress during pregnancy.
Objective: To assess whether the group of pregnant women have lower levels of stress after attending the psychological therapy than the group attending parent craft classes. The cognitive-behavioural therapy to reduce stress will be held in 10 sessions (1 per week) as follows: First session: General information about pregnancy. Pregnant women will describe what can they do to reduce stress levels. Second session: Breathing techniques and talk about how last week went. Third session: Muscle relaxation and guided imagination techniques Fourth session: Cognitive restructuring. Being able to detect thoughts and feelings Fifth session: Detect cognitive distortions Sixth session: Cognitive restructuring Seventh session: Time management Eighth session: Problems solving Ninth session: Assertively and social skills Tenth session: How to ask for help when needed and learning to say "No".
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
40
Midwife-guided classes for pregnant women about pregnancy and childbirth
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy to reduce stress levels among pregnant women
Granada
Churriana de la Vega, Granada, Spain
RECRUITINGChange in hair cortisol levels
Change in hair cortisol levels at different time points
Time frame: Baseline, and 3 months
Change in Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
The PSS provides information on the perception of general stress during the preceding month. It consists on 14 items scores on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = never, 1 = almost never, 2 = once in a while, 3 = often, 4 = very often). Scores range from 0-56 (higher scores represent higher levels of stress)
Time frame: Baseline, and 3 months
Change in Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (PDQ)
It is a 12-item instrument scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (none at all) to 4 (extremely) to assess specific worries and concerns pregnant women experience regarding medical problems, physical symptoms, body changes, labor, childbirth, relationships, and the baby's health. Scores range from 0-48 (higher scores represent higher levels of pregnancy specific-stress)
Time frame: Baseline, and 3 months
Change in Symptoms Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R)
This is a 90-item scale scored using a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (never) to 4 (extremely). This instrument is used to assess 9 dimensions: Somatization, Obsession-compulsion, Interpersonal sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic anxiety, Paranoid ideation, and Psychoticism. The scale also has 7 extra items distributed among 3 global indexes of distress: the GSI, which measures overall psychological distress; the PSDI, which is used to measure the intensity of symptoms; and Positive Symptom Total, used to measure the number of self-reported symptoms. Using the author´s instructions, the scores are transformed to percentiles (0-100). Percentiles ≥ 70 represent clinical symptoms in any of the subscale of this instrument.
Time frame: Baseline, and 3 months
Change in Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)
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It consists of 25 items evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0-4: not true at all (0), rarely true (1), sometimes true (2), often true (3), and true nearly all of the time (4) - these ratings result in a number between 0-100, and higher scores indicate higher resilience.
Time frame: Baseline, and 3 months