Effect of Perinatal Emotional Management on Maternal Emotion and Delivery Outcomes
Condition: Perinatal Problems; Mental Depression; Complications; Cesarean Section
MeSH terms: Depression
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Pregnancy or childbirth is a kind of persistent and strong source of stress for pregnant
      women. Prenatal and intrapartum negative emotions not only damage the mental health of
      pregnant women, but also have a negative impact on the mode of delivery, labor, postpartum
      complications and neonatal outcomes . Due to considerations for the effect on the fetus,
      there is concern of the use of drug treatment for depression during pregnancy. Therefore,
      psychological interventions have an important role. According to the WHO global survey in
      Asia 2007-08, China had the highest overall rate of caesarean section (46.2%), and also had
      the highest rate of caesarean section without indication (11.7%). The embarrassing "first in
      the world" of caesarean section rate was causing widespread concern in China. Recently, the
      Chinese government has launched a project named "promoting the rate of natural childbirth and
      protecting the health of mother and child", trying to reduce the cesarean section rate
      especially that without medical indication. Therefore, examining if emotional management is
      effective in reducing negative emotions of pregnant women as well as decreasing the rate of
      cesarean section is an important research question. Our study aims to help the pregnant women
      control their anxiety, depressive feelings and other negative emotions by "emotional
      self-management group training" and we examine if this can reduce the incidence of depression
      and improve delivery outcomes.
    

Detailed description: 
      This study tried to explore the effectiveness of prenatal emotional management on pregnant
      women' delivery outcomes. All participants filled the Questionnaire (PHQ-9) at the baseline
      assessment. Then they were randomly assigned into the emotional management (EM) group and the
      usual care (UC) group. The baseline evaluation began at 31 weeks of pregnancy and the mother
      was followed up to 42 days postpartum. Each subject received the EM package In the EM, and
      the UC was given only routine prenatal care. PHQ-9 and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression
      scale（EPDS）were used for assessment.
    

Intervention name(s): antenatal psychological intervention; routine prenatal care
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): emotion management included:
(1) Establish relationship between the health care workers and the pregnant women, (2) Determine training objectives, (3) Guide to practice relaxation training, including imagination and abdominal breathing. (4) Make cognitive adjustment, (5) Relieve anxiety and tension by scene simulation and stimulus exposure. (6) Learn emotional self-regulation, (7) Improve self-efficacy by group interaction. (8) Teach prenatal knowledge ,(9) Guide interactive trainings between pregnant women and their couples; (10) Visit delivery rooms.; Prenatal routine inspection included blood pressure, weight, uterine fundal height, abdominal circumference, fetal presentation, fetal position, fetal heart rate and so on.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: Psychological intervention,; prenatal period,; cesarean section rate,; stage of labor