The correlation between emotional intelligence of pregnant women and their fear of childbirth, readiness for childbirth and styles of coping with stress

The Correlation between Emotional Intelligence of Pregnant Women and Their Fear of Childbirth, Readiness for Childbirth and Styles of Coping with Stress Purpose: The study was conducted in the cross-sectional, descriptive and relation-seeking quality for the purpose of determining the correlation between emotional intelligence of pregnant women and their fear of childbirth, readiness for childbirth and styles of coping with stress. Material and Method: The study was carried out with 665 pregnant women in the third trimester, who applied to the maternity polyclinics of a public hospital and a district public hospital (Niksar) in the city center of Tokat between 01.11.2018- 01.11.2019. Data were collected using the "Introductory Information Form", Emotional Intelligence Evaluation Scale (EIES), Prenatal Self-Evaluation Scale (PSES) and the Styles of Coping with Stress Scale (SCSS). In analysis of the data; mean ± standard deviation and median, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Independent Samples t-Test and Pearson's Correlation analysis were used. Findings: In the study, it was found that pregnant women's EIES score average was 126.30±28, Readiness for Childbirth (RCB) score was 29.25±4.77 and Fear of Childbirth (FCB) score was 27.46±4.58. As Self-Confident Approach (SCA), Optimistic Approach (OA) and Finding Social Support (FSS) dimension scores of the SCSS in pregnant women were above average, whereas Desperate Approach (DA) and Submissive Approach (SA) dimension scores were below average; it was concluded that they displayed an effective attitude in coping with stress. It was determined that there was a positively moderate and significant correlation between Being Aware of Emotions (BAE) and Self-Motivation (SM) lower dimensions of the EIES and SCA lower dimension of the SCSS (p <0.001, r=0.532) (p < 0.001, r=0.531) and a positively weak and significant correlation between the EIES total score and the SCSS, RCB and FCB (p<0.001, r=0.317), (p< 0.001, r=0.283), (p<0.001, r=0.355). It was determined that there was a negatively weak and significant correlation between the RCB, FCB and SCSS desperate and submissive approaches of pregnant women and a positively significant correlation between other lower dimensions (p<0.05). In line with these findings; it was concluded that emotional intelligence levels of pregnant women needed to be developed and they had lower readiness for childbirth, higher fear of childbirth and displayed partially effective attitudes in coping with stress. It is suggested that all subcomponents of emotional intelligence in pregnant women should be developed via trainings provided within the scope of prenatal care, in order to prevent stress and fear of childbirth.