Assessment of prenatal distress in pregnant women

Pregnancy is a period in a woman?s life in which important biological and psychological changes occur, with a high risk of many factors to cause worry and stress. It is a methodological and descriptive study and it aims to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of ?Revised Version of Prenatal Distress Questionnaire? to be able to use the scale for the assessment of distress level of Turkish women during their pregnancies, to determine the prenatal distress level of pregnant women, and to make suggestions regarding the management of distress levels. The study was conducted on 522 pregnant women at one private hospital. Pregnancy Description Form and ?Revised Version of Prenatal Distress Questionnaire [(NUPDQ)-17 Item Version]? were used in the research for data collection. Permissions from the institutions were obtained, as well as the permissions to use the scale. Following the language adaptation and validation review of the scale, test-retest was performed on 312 pregnant women. Test-retest (N=312) reliability coefficients of the Turkish version of Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (NUPDQ) (17 Item Version) were between (r) 0.36 and 0.80 (p=.001), and Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was 0.87. Turkish version of the Prenatal Distress Questionnaire is an easily-applicable, easy-to-understand, valid and reliable tool for the assessment of prenatal distress level in Turkish pregnant women. Mean score of the Turkish version of Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire was 9.88±4.79 (range: 0-24). Prenatal distress level in pregnant women was higher in those who are in their second trimester, reported having worries about giving birth, had a problem history during childbearing in their previous cases and those who had health problems during their present pregnancy. Women who had a history of hospitalization due to pregnancy and those who plan to have a professional assistance for baby-care, and those who experience difficulties in their working life due to pregnancy and those who encounter some pregnancy related problems due to their working life had higher prenatal distress level (p<0.05). It is advised to determine prenatal psychosocial stressors for the handling the factors causing prenatal distress in pregnant women, to plan regular observations and training programs and consultancy services for the management of psychosocial stressors.Key words: Prenatal distress, pregnant, reliability, validity