Relationship among pregnancy anxiety, spiritual wellbeing, and antenatal attachment in pregnant women

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy is a unique moment in a woman's life (Calou et al., 2018) that brings changes in psycho-emotional, spiritual and physical health. The development of antenatal attachment is an important aspect of the transition to motherhood (Ertmann et al., 2021), and perceived pregnancy anxiety can be detrimental to both, mother and foetus. Aims: To determine the relationship among pregnancy anxiety, spiritual well-being, and antenatal attachment in pregnant women. Methods: The cross-sectional survey design was applied from Now. 2019 till Nov. 2021. In total, 292 pregnant women were invited to participate during their 2nd and the 3rd trimesters of pregnancy. The questionnaires from 279 women in the 2ndtrimester and 174 women in the 3rd trimester were analysed. Spiritual well-being (SW)(SHALOM), Pregnancy-related anxiety(PRA) and Maternal antenatal attachment (MAA) scales were used. Findings: The age of respondents ranged from 18 to 45 y with the average of 30.4 (SD=4.6). The majority of women have had their pregnancy planned (84.6%) and most of them (75.3%)considered themselves as religious persons. PRA. Moderate and high levels of anxiety occurred in women during third (52%) and second (48.6%) trimesters of pregnancy, respectively. Anxiety scores were higher in the third trimester than in the second one. Women later in pregnancy were more afraid of being hurt during childbirth and worried about caring for their baby. Pregnancy anxiety had a negative relationship with all dimensions of SW, except Transcendental dimension for the Lived and Ideal domain of SHALOM.SW. Significant difference was found in the Ideal communal, Lived overall and Lived communal domains – the scores in the second trimester of pregnancy were higher compared to the scores in the third trimester. MAA. During the 3rd trimester, the MAA scale was completed by 173 respondents who also participated in the first stage. MAAS Total, Quality and Intensity changed significantly -higher scores were obtained in the third trimester of pregnancy. When comparing the MAAS Quality and Intensity scores, the change in the Intensity score was greater than in Quality score. Conclusion: Pregnant women feel more anxious in the third trimester than in the second. Anxiety in pregnancy is related to the maternal attachment and personal, communal and Ruseckienė, D.,Tomkevičiūtė, J.,Riklikienė, O.29environmental spiritual well-being. This study highlighted the importance of considering multiple aspects of spiritual health and maternal-foetal attachment during pregnancy as they maybe beneficial coping strategies used to adapt to pregnancy anxiety.