Effect of counseling quality on anxiety, grief, and coping after second-trimester abortion for pregnancy complications

Abstract

Objective: We sought to explore the relationship between counseling quality, measured by shared decision making and decision satisfaction, and psychological outcomes (anxiety, grief, and posttraumatic stress) after second-trimester abortion for pregnancy complications.

Study design: We conducted a cross-sectional study of women who underwent second-trimester abortion for complications. We recruited participants from Facebook and online support groups and surveyed them about counseling experiences and psychosocial issues. We used multivariate linear regression to evaluate relationships between counseling quality and psychological outcomes.

Results: We analyzed data from 145 respondents. Shared decision making and decision satisfaction scores were positively and strongly correlated in bivariate analysis (r=0.7, p<.0001), as were posttraumatic stress and grief scores (r=0.7, p<.0001). In the adjusted analysis, higher decision satisfaction was associated with lower grief and posttraumatic stress scores (p=.02 and p=.01, respectively) and higher shared decision making was associated with lower posttraumatic stress scores (p=.01).

Conclusions: Decision satisfaction and shared decision making have a positive effect on psychological outcomes after second-trimester abortion for pregnancy complications. Counseling quality may be especially important in this setting given the sensitive nature of decisions regarding pregnancy termination for complications.

Implication: These results highlight the importance of patient-centered counseling for women seeking pregnancy termination.

Keywords: Abortion; Counseling quality; Decision satisfaction; Fetal anomalies; Pregnancy termination; Shared decision making.