Publication:

Assessment of stress prevalence among pregnant women in Kerala

Background Pregnancy is a period of significant physiological and emotional transformation. This is a stressful time, which may have a negative impact on mother and baby health. The present study was conducted with the aim of finding the prevalence of stress level among pregnant women in Kerala and to check the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and perceived stress among the pregnant women.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to observe among 130 pregnant women at a tertiary care center in Kochi, Kerala. The stress level was measured by perceived stress scale (PSS) and emotional intelligence was assessed in four areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Chi-square test and Spearman’s rho test were used in the statistical analysis.

Results A total of 130 pregnant women with 84.6% reporting moderate stress, 9.2% high stress and 6.2% mild stress. There was a significant negative correlation between levels on stress and social awareness, the only individual domain of emotional intelligence. Demographic factors were not significantly related to stress levels such as employment status, medical comorbidities and socioeconomic class.

Conclusions Relatively high stress levels are common among most pregnant women in this area. Prevention of urinary tract infection (UTI) can be crucial in enhancing emotional intelligence skills, especially social awareness, which must be targeted and utilized by specific antenatal screening and psychological support systems for whole mother well-being.