Investigating the Impact of Prenatal Training on Anxiety Sensitivity and Control in Stress-Prone Pregnant Women: A Case-Study

Mood changes during pregnancy are very common and (DSM-V) highlights major mood, anxiety andpersonality disorders in pregnant women. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness ofprenatal training on modulating anxiety sensitivity and anxiety control perception in stress-prone pregnantwomen. A quasi-experimental study was conducted on 125 volunteers by convenience sampling methodand 40 persons were randomly selected and divided into two groups (experimental and control). Eachindividual has answered the pregnancy anxiety, anxiety control perception and anxiety sensitivityquestionnaires before and after training. During the training, experimental techniques and healthy lifestylewere taught to the experimental group during 8 sessions of 120 minutes. Experimental results indicate thatstress management training combined with healthy lifestyle techniques increased anxiety control perception(p <0.05), while decreasing perceived stress and pregnancy anxiety in stress-prone pregnant women (p<0.05). Moreover, the results show that psychological training during pregnancy, such as relaxation andhealthy lifestyle, reduces pregnancy anxiety, perceived stress and increases anxiety control perception inpregnant women prone to stress. However, the training sessions did not have a positive effect on anxietysensitivity.