Abstract

NEREU BJORN, Mª Benvinda; NEVES DE JESUS, Saul  and  CASADO MORALES, Mª Isabel. Relaxation strategies during pregnancy: health benefits. Clínica y Salud [online]. 2013, vol.24, n.2, pp.77-83. ISSN 2174-0550.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5093/cl2013a9.

The practice of relaxation may be an effective strategy for coping with stress during the pregnancy period, a stage of physical and emotional changes that requires adaptations. The objective was to evaluate the effects of the regular practice of a relaxation technique in pregnant women on emotional and physical variables: stress, anxiety, depression, heart rate (HR), and blood pressure (BP). Sample: 46 pregnant women, aged between 18 and 38 years, and living in Portugal. Method: These women were divided into two groups, experimental and control. The experimental group received, between the 2nd and the 8th month of pregnancy a total of twenty to twenty five individual sessions of visualization and progressive relaxation. To evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, HR and BP was measured pre- and posttreatment, as well as anxiety, depression, and stress, using EADS-21. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention on the variables assessed.

Keywords : Pregnancy; Relaxation; Anxiety; Stress; Depression.

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