Psychosocial Aspects during Pregnancy and Obstetrical Complications

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Abstract
The relationship between life events, anxiety, social support, coping style and obstetrical complications was studied in a sample of 419 pregnant women. They were interviewed during the 6th month of pregnancy. The Paykel Interview for Recent Life Events, the free anxiety subscale of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) and a 5-factor scale, derived from Standley et al. (1979) for the evaluation of specific anxiety in pregnancy were used; Surtees' Index of Social Support and a scale of coping style derived from Andrews et al. (1978) were also administered to the subjects. To permit a prospective study, only obstetrical complications occurring after the interview were considered. Of the 419 women interviewed, 100 were excluded from the study after delivery because they were affected by complications or diseases of clear organic origin, or complications of any kind in the period of pregnancy previous to the interviews, or because we were unable to obtain data on the delivery. In 142 of the women, the delivery proved to be complicated, and in the remaining 177, it did not. Taken singly, none of the psychosocial and clinical variables considered differentiated significantly the 2 groups of women. However, when the combined effect of some psychosocial variables is considered, numerous significant interactions emerge. The variables which interact most frequently with each other and with the life event variables are specific anxiety, coping style and general anxiety. The data were also analysed using the Automatic Interaction Detector (AID) programme on a reduced sample. The variables which are most predictive of complications are previous pregnancies, social support, general anxiety and coping style, which together explain 16.7% of the variance.