Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background & Aim: Pre-term delivery as a public health problem imposes a great burden on families and society, both financial and physical. Studies have shown that stressful life events are associated with several adverse pregnancy outcomes particularly pre-term labor. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between pre-term delivery and stressful life events during pregnancy.

  Material & Method: The study was a correlational study conducted in 2006. In this study, 1237 mothers with singleton pregnancy, between 20 to 42 weeks of gestation without any obstetric complications and/or known physical or psychological disorders and with preterm delivery was selected by continuous sampling method. The instrument was the questionnaire “SRRS” and the data were analyzed with statistical tests.

  Results: The findings showed that pre-term delivery was 13.9% among subjects under study. There were associations between Pre-term delivery and sex difficulties (P=0.03), trouble with spouse (P=0.003), change in living conditions (P=0.005), change in sleeping habits (P=0.001), change in the number of people in gatherings (P=0.03), change in eating habits (P=0.04), and the number of events (P=0.03). But, we did not find any significant relationship between pre-term delivery and the intensity of the stresses .

  Conclusion: The researcher suggest the establishment of the educational counseling programs for pregnant women in order to ease their hardships regarding bad events and improve their coping abilities against these events