Effect of psychological care on the prenatal mental state and vaginal delivery in pregnant women during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of people globally, including pregnant women. We aimed to explore the influence of a psychological care intervention based on behavioral change theory on the prenatal mental state and mode of delivery in pregnant women from June 2020 to June 2022 during the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. A retrospective analysis was conducted of the records of pregnant women who delivered in our hospital from June 2020 to June 2022. They were assigned to an observation and a control group according to the care that they received. The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) was used to evaluate their negative emotions. The duration of each labor stage and the mode of delivery (cesarean section, spontaneous vaginal delivery, or assisted vaginal delivery) were recorded. A total of 216 women were included in the analysis. Before care, there were no significant differences in the SCL-90 scores between the 2 groups. After delivery, the SCL-90 scores in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group. The vaginal delivery rate in the observation group was 92.59%, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (70.39%). The duration of the first stage of labor and the total duration of labor in the observation group were 447.95 ± 53.45 minutes and 498.15 ± 35.14 minutes, respectively, which were significantly lower than those in the control group. The implementation of psychological care based on behavioral change theory in pregnant women during the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic significantly improved their prenatal psychological state, promoted vaginal delivery, and help shorten the labor process, and reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. This intervention is thus worth promoting.