Investigating the effect of group counseling on family stress and anxiety of primiparous mothers during delivery

BACKGROUND: Family is considered as the first source of care and support for the mother. Family stress and anxiety can be transmitted to the pregnant mother and have negative effects on pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and even their fetus. Given that one of the policies of the World Health Organization is to emphasize “safe family is safe with mother” this study was aimed to determine the effect of group counseling on family stress and anxiety of primiparous mothers during delivery. METHODS: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2016 on 72 family members of pregnant women who were referred to midwifery clinics in two health centers in Saveh-Iran. In this research, two members of each family (husband and other family of the pregnant woman) were selected using convenience sampling and were randomly divided into two groups of 36 families. At the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy, standard questionnaires of Cohen’s Perceived Stress and Cattell Anxiety scale were completed by both groups. For the intervention group, six sessions of cognitive group counseling were held weekly and the control group did not receive the intervention. Then, at the time of hospitalizing pregnant women for childbirth, the questionnaires were completed again by the family of both groups and the two groups were compared in terms of stress and anxiety before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using appropriate statistical tests. FINDINGS: The findings showed that there was no significant difference between mean scores of stress, anxiety, hidden anxiety and obvious anxiety before intervention in both intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, Perceived stress score (p < 0.001), anxiety score (p < 0.001), hidden anxiety score (p = 0.003) and obvious anxiety score (p < 0.001) after intervention, with a statistically significant difference were lower than the control group. CONCLUSION: Group counseling can reduce the stress and anxiety of the family of primiparous mothers. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13030-019-0148-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.