Abstract

Introduction: Miscarriage can reduce the quality of life by affecting various aspects of one’s life and by creating psychological, physical and marital problems. Miscarriage is considered a major psychological stressor, resulting in high levels of anxiety and mood disorders. Although national and international studies using standard tools have shown that women after miscarriage suffer anxiety, the effect of purposeful interventions to reduce the anxiety has not been well investigated. Accordingly, a study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of midwifery counseling based on "solution-focused anxiety management" on anxiety of women with a history of miscarriage. Methodology: This randomized clinical trial study was conducted with the participation of 84 women who had a history of spontaneous miscarriage, less than one week of miscarriage, and high level of anxiety using Beck Anxiety Inventory. Based on random allocation sequence, subjects were assigned into two groups of control (routine health care) and intervention (4-session of solution-focused anxiety management counseling). Demographic Questionnaires and Beck Anxiety Inventory were completed by both groups before and immediately after the intervention and three months after the intervention. Data were compared in two groups using t-test, chi-square (x2), Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, and repeated measures. All relationships were considered significant at a significance level of P <0.05. Results: The intervention used in this study (solution-focused anxiety management counseling) significantly reduced the anxiety of women with a history of spontaneous miscarriage in the intervention group, compared to control group (p-value = 0.001). Mean and standard deviation of anxiety scores of women before and after the intervention were 36.67± 9.07 and 40.12± 20.71, respectively, in the intervention group, and 39.02±9.66 and 38.45±13.60, respectively, in the control group. Conclusion: based on the results of this interventional study, it seems that using a solution-focused anxiety management approach can reduce the anxiety of women with a history of miscarriage. Thus, using this method for post-miscarriage interventions to control anxiety seems to be one of the purposeful interventions.