Assessing the Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Anxiety and Cortisol in Pregnancy

Introduction: The perinatal period is a transitional period for pregnant women in terms of physiological, psychological, and social changes. These changes cause anxiety during pregnancy. Mindfulness-based intervention is a new intervention that can help reduce anxiety during pregnancy and cortisol is a biomarker of stress or anxiety. The purpose of this research was to determine the degree of anxiety and blood cortisol levels in pregnant women. Patients and

Methods: This research used a Randomized control study involving 70 participants which was split into two groups, with intervention group using MBI (n = 35 participants) and the control group without MBI (n = 35 respondents). The MBI was given over 8 weeks for 2 hours each session. Data collection on anxiety and blood cortisol was carried out 2 times, namely at the beginning of the study (pretest) and at the end of the 8th week (posttest). Anxiety assessment used the perinatal anxiety screening scale (PASS) and the ELISA test to assess blood cortisol. SPSS 25 was also used to analyze the data.

Results: In terms of anxiety, there was a statistically significant difference in mean scores between the intervention group and the control group (12.83±8.29 vs 30.69±16.39) P < 0.000, cortisol (14.30±5.29 vs 19.51±8.46) p=0.003.

Conclusion: MBI can be suggested to promote reduction of anxiety and blood cortisol levels of pregnant women.