Assessment of Anxiety Levels and Coping Strategies among Antenatal Mothers: A Descriptive Survey from Kerala, India

Introduction: Many physiological and psychological changes occur during pregnancy, which is seen as a normal part of a woman's reproductive life. The majority of expectant mother cope well with these changes, but many suffer greatly.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were, to assess the level of anxiety among antenatal mothers, to assess coping strategies adopted by antenatal mothers, to assess the relationship between anxiety level and coping strategies adopted, to find out the association between anxiety level with selected baseline variables and to compare coping strategies with selected baseline variables.

Methods: Non experimental descriptive survey was conducted among 150 antenatal mothers between 6 to 40 weeks of gestation attending antenatal clinic at selected hospitals in Kottayam District of Kerala, were selected by non-probability quota sampling.

Results: The result of the study showed that 52.67% antenatal mothers had high anxiety and 47.3% had low anxiety. There was no significant relationship between anxiety level and coping strategies of antenatal mothers (P>0.05). There was significant association between anxiety level and type of family (p<0.05). There was significant difference between coping strategies with occupation(p<0.05), type of family (p<0.05), place of residence (p<0.05), duration of pregnancy(p<0.05) and who planned their pregnancy (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study comes to the following conclusion that antenatal mothers exhibit anxiety during pregnancy. Anxiety is more prevalent in third trimester followed by first trimester and high anxiety is observed in primigravida mothers. Antenatal women adopted problem-focused coping highest compared to emotion-focused coping and avoidant-focused coping. The less preferred items of coping were substance abuse and self-blame, rather they focused on religious activities, acceptance of pregnancy and emotional support.