Background:Self-esteem is a key psychological factor that helps facing challenges such as pregnancy and childbirth and can affect maternal and neonatal outcomes. The present study aims to explore self-esteem and factors affecting it in pregnant women.
Methods:This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 358 pregnant women referred to comprehensive health centers in Qazvin. The data were collected using a demographic-midwifery questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Besides, as the data were not normally distributed, Spearman, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyze the data.
Results:The participants' self-esteem mean score was 25.58±5.97 (out of 30). The participants’ self-esteem score had a negative significant correlation with their partner’s age (p = 0.029), number of pregnancies (p = 0.004), and number of children (p = 0.015), and a positive significant correlation with the participants’ education (p = 0.019). Besides, the self-esteem score was related to planned pregnancy reported by the wife (p = 0.032) and the partner (p = 0.044), and the abortion of the current pregnancy (p = 0.040). Moreover, there was a higher level of self-esteem among the women who had no abortion.
Conclusion:The present study showed that there are factors that can affect the self-esteem of pregnant women. Accordingly, women's self-esteem can be improved during pregnancy by providing counseling services by health care providers in clinics and identifying women who have low self-esteem risk factors.