A systematic review regarding women’s emotional and psychological experiences of high-risk pregnancies

Abstract

Background: High-risk pregnancy refers to a pregnancy that negatively affects the health of the mother, the baby, or both. High-risk pregnancy evokes a range of emotional and psychological experiences for the expectant mother, and can adversely affect both the mother and the baby's health. Medical research on high-risk pregnancy abounds, while women's emotional/psychological experiences are not sufficiently documented, and hence much less attention and/or programming is directed to support women with high risk pregnancies. Methods: The aim of this review is to present published evidence of how studies reported on the emotional and psychological experiences of a woman's high-risk pregnancy journey. The systematic review examined qualitative studies over a 10 year period that were published between January 2006 and June 2017. These studies were identified on 10 databases. The study utilised three stages of review (i.e. abstract reading, title reading, and full-text reading) and for a successful conduction of the meta-synthesis, this study applied one of the phases provided by Noblit and Hare. Results: The findings provide empirical evidence that women's emotional and psychological experiences (i.e. shock, fear, frustration, grief, isolation and loneliness, anger, sadness, guilt, and mental health disorder) are evident throughout their high-risk pregnancies experience.

Factors affecting the mental health of pregnant women using UK maternity services during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative interview study

“…The perceived lack of connection reported between people experiencing pregnancy and their midwives is important because it can prevent trust and empowerment, (39) as described by participants in this study. Previous studies have shown that women are more likely to feel as though their needs are being met and their voices heard when a relationship exists between themselves and midwifery staff.…”

Effects of nonpharmacological interventions on the psychological health of high-risk pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…interventions for pregnant women with preeclampsia [28,34,35,39,47], and 10 out of 11 interventions for pregnant women with PTL [26,29,30,36,37,[44][45][46]50,54]. Pregnant women with preeclampsia and PTL received pharmacological therapy during hospitalization and therapeutic management for ongoing monitoring of the pregnant woman and fetus after hospital discharge [3]. In pregnant women with GDM, seven out of 11 interventions [27,[31][32][33]40,41,48,49,53] were applied in outpatient clinics and two interventions [27,49] were conducted in the hospital ward.…”

“…The Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology classifies these three as factors that cause a moderate-or higher-risk pregnancy and notes that intensive observation and https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.2021.09.17 181 management are necessary during pregnancy or childbirth for women with these conditions [1]. High-risk pregnant women often have negative experiences due to pharmacological treatment, restriction of physical activity, and hospitalization [3]. High-risk pregnant women are also more likely to be affected by poor psychological health such as depression, anxiety, and stress than other pregnant women [4][5][6][7].…”

“…Some high-risk pregnant women are hospitalized in maternal-fetal intensive care units. This results in being separated from their spouse and family members [3], which may aggravate their anxiety, depression, and stress [9]. In addition, high-risk pregnant women have been reported as being less aware of the need for psychological health management than their low-risk counterparts [9].…”

Dyad Model as a Caring Innovation in High Risk Pregnancy

“…High-risk pregnancy with various health threats causes affects the psychological response of the mother. The mother will feel fear, sadness, feel guilty and sometimes even experience frustration throughout her pregnancy 7 . This condition will increasingly have a negative impact on the health of the mother and the fetus and affect the mother's ability to adapt to her new role.…”