Understanding mothers' perceptions of pregnancy anxiety: a qualitative study

Background and Objective: Anxiety in pregnancy has severe complications for a mother and her developing baby. Despite this fact, few studies have been done about antenatal anxiety and its risk factors, so this research aimed to explore components and dimensions of this kind of anxiety. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in Tehran city from May 2016 to December 2017. The participants were twenty-eight pregnant women who referred to health care services. In order to collect data, purposive sampling and face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews were used. Data were analyzed simultaneously with data collection using qualitative content analysis with a conventional approach. Results: Mothers from different social backgrounds, educational levels and ethnicities, aged 18-41 years old participated in this study and after analysis, mothers’ perceptions of anxiety-provoking factors were classified into nine domains: including lack of information and planning, mothers’ loss of well-being, conflict with spouse, sociocultural issues, financial problems, parental challenges, healthcare related, fetal health and lack of support. Conclusion: With respect to what was found in this study, it seems that identification and screening of vulnerable mothers would be a dramatic help for the timely prevention and control of this mental health disorder and its complications.