Effect of Individual Counseling on the Participation Rate of Pregnant Mothers in Decision Making on the Treatment Process: Clinical Trial

Aim: Due to the high Sensitivity of pregnancy and the vulnerability of mothers during this period, their participation in clinical decisions is very important. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of individual counseling on the participation of pregnant women in decision making on the treatment process. Methods & Materials: This clinical trial study was carried out on 190 pregnant women who referred to Kosar medical-education center in Qazvin in 2018. The subjects were selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to the two groups of test and control (n=20 in each group). The intervention was conducted in one 60 minutes individual counseling session for the test group. The research tool was shared decision-making questionnaire (SDM-Q-9). Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 software, through independent t-test, paired t-test, and Chi-squared test. Findings: There was a significant difference between the mean scores of participation of the pregnant mothers before and after intervention in the test group (p<0.001) but there was no significant difference between the mean scores of the pregnant women involvement before and after intervention in the control group (p>0.05). Also, before the intervention, comparison of the mean scores of the pregnant mothers' involvement in decision making between the two groups showed no significant difference but after the intervention, a significant difference between two groups was observed (p<0.001). Conclusion: Individual counseling is an effective and appropriate intervention to increase the participation rate of pregnant mothers in decision making in the treatment process.