The Effect of Group Counseling based on Communication Skills on the Quality of Life of Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: Women experience psychological problems during pregnancy affecting their quality of life. Since weakness in life skills, including communication skills (CS), is a factor of reducing the quality of life, we conducted a study to determine the effect of group counseling based on communication skills on the quality of life in pregnant women in Gorgan. Methods: The parallel randomized field study trial carried out in 2016 on 72 pregnant women who referred to the health centers in Gorgan, Iran. The pregnant women at the gestational age of 14-18 weeks were recruited in convenience sampling method, and then randomly assigned in to the intervention and control groups using the block randomization method. The data collection tool included the quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) that was completed by both groups before the intervention. The samples of the intervention group received 6 sessions of group counseling based on communication skills for a one-hour session per week. A week after the sessions, the questionnaires were completed again by both groups. We analyzed the data in SPSS-16 using the independent t-test, Mann-Whitney test, Wilcoxon test, Paired t-test, and Chi-square test. Results: The mean of women's age was 28.4±4.3 years in the intervention group, and was 26.8±4.5 years in the control group, and the mean age of their husbands were 33.14±5.3 and 31.22± 4.8 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. There was statistically significant difference between the intervention (60±15.2) and control (49±13.4) groups after the intervention in total quality of life (P=0.002). The results indicated that the mean scores of quality of life of women in the intervention group versus the control group after the intervention had statistically significant differences in all areas except for the "physical function" (65.3±17.4 vs. 61.5±20.1, P=0.4) and "role limitation due to physical problems" (50±36.8 vs. 45.1±27.3, P=0.56). Conclusion: The health centers need to be taught about the communication skills in line with physical training during pregnancy by midwives and midwifery counselors.