Prenatal Anxiety among Pregnant Women Visiting in Antenatal Care Outpatient Department at Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital

Background: Prenatal anxiety is a normal and natural experience. It can affect a person’s feelings, thoughts, behavior, and physical well-being. The majority of maternal deaths are due to hemorrhage, infection, unsafe abortion, and eclampsia which is due to knowledge deficit and anxiety. The objective of this study is to assess the level of prenatal anxiety among pregnant women visiting in ANC OPD at Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital (PMWH). Materials & Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study included 337 respondents from Antenatal Care (ANC) outpatient department of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital, Thapathali, Kathmandu. Ethical clearance was obtained from Nepal Health Research Council and Institutional Review Committee (IRC) of Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital, Kathmandu. Prenatal Anxiety Screening Scale was used for data collection. Period of data collection was October 1st to November 1st 2017. Interview technique was used and data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings; the finding revealed that mean age of the respondents were 24.68± 2.99 years. 39.5 % respondents were primi gravida. Less than fifty (40.9%) of respondents had minimal anxiety, 42.1% had mild to moderate level anxiety and least (16.9%) of the respondents had severe anxiety. The study showed that there is association between anxiety and gravida (p<0.05) of the respondents. Conclusion: Based on the findings present study revealed that less than fifty percentages of respondents had minimal and mild to moderate level of anxiety and least of the respondent had severe level of anxiety. There was significant association between level of anxiety and gravida of the respondents. Furthermore, it is concluded that prenatal anxiety has relation with the gravid of pregnant women.