Anxiety, Social Support and Quality of Life of Pregnant Women after Previous Abortion

Abortion represents a complex biological and psychological event. It is considered one of thecrises women can have. Objective: Identify anxiety, social support and quality of life for pregnantwomen after previous abortion. Setting: The study was conducted at the antenatal clinic of El-ShatbyMaternity University Hospital. Subjects: The study comprised 80 pregnant women with history ofabortion. Tools: four tools were utilized for data collection; a socio-demographic and obstetric datasheet, multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, trait anxiety inventory structured interviewschedule (TAI), and World Health Organization quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: Theresults of this study revealed that about two third of the studied subjects (61.30%) were in the agegroup range from 30 to less than 40 years, the social support was perceived strong by two third ofstudied women (66.3%). Fourteen percent of the women had mild level of anxiety, 62.5% of them hadmoderate quality of life while 15% had poor quality of life. There is a negative statistical significantcorrelation between social support and women’s anxiety level, and a positive statistical significantcorrelation was found between social support and quality of life. The women with one year lapse afterlast abortion received more support than women with less than one year lapse. Conclusion: Inconclusion, social support, level of anxiety and quality of life are correlated and motherspsychological support during a pregnancy after abortion. Recommendations: Counseling for thesewomen to enhance their mental health beside physical care at this critical stage in their life.