Comparison of women’s stress in unexplained early pregnancy loss and normal vaginal delivery
نویسندگان
1 Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences
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4 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
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doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: Postpartum period and recurrent abortion are stressful conditions that affectwomen’s mental health. Stress and depression lead to the release of stress biomarkers that maybe dangerous for the mother and fetus. The aim of this study was to determine stress in the afterrecurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) and normal vaginal delivery (NVD) in the north of Iran.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This case–control study was done on forty women with NVD andforty women with RPL. Stress was measured through measuring serum cortisol, Perceived StressScale‑14 (PSS‑14), and the revised version of the Symptom Checklist‑90 (SCL‑90‑R). Data wereanalyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 software. Chi‑squaretest, independent‑samples t‑test, Mann–Whitney U‑test, and Pearson correlation were used toanalyze the data.RESULTS: Findings showed that nonpregnant healthy women had significantly highercortisol level than RPL women (mean ± standard deviation [SD]: 155.80 ± 84.97 ng/ml and126.02 ± 50.44 ng/ml, P < 0.011), respectively. Furthermore, they had higher PSS‑14 andSCL‑90 scores than PRL women (mean ± SD: 25.87 ± 7.48 and 25.5 ± 9.19, P = 0.745, andmean ± SD: 1.27±0.63 and 1.20 ± 0.53, P = 0.624), respectively.CONCLUSION: High levels of cortisol reflect the acute stress caused by the care of the baby inwomen. Therefore, social support for the pregnant woman by the health‑care team is an essentialfactor for reducing postpartum depression.
