MATERNAL VULNERABILITY IN HIGH RISK PREGNANCY: PREVALENCE OF PHYSICAL AND PSYCHO-SOCIAL CHALLENGES IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The purpose of current study was to identify the prevalence rates of physical and psycho-social challenges faced by women with high-risk pregnancies. Convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from (N=642) high-risk pregnant women in public and private hospitals and maternity clinics in six cities of the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The Multidimensional Inventory of Psycho-social Challenges for High-Risk Pregnant Women (MIPC-HRP) and the Maternal Physical Burden & Care Access Barrier Scale (MPBCAS) scales were used to collect data, results showed high internal consistency with reliability coefficients of .94 and .96, respectively. Descriptive statistics and frequency distribution were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that 24.6% of high-risk pregnant women face high levels of physical difficulties and barriers to healthcare access, and 55.5% of women faced moderate levels of physical difficulties. On the other hand, 26.5% of the women face high levels of psycho-social distress, and 57.3% of them face moderate levels of psycho-social discomfort.