Planned domiciliary versus hospital care for women with preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (PPROM)

Abstract

Complications of pregnancy come with feelings such as fear and frustration, especially while being admitted to the hospital. As antenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms are common among obstetric inpatients, they increase the risk of postpartum depression and adversely affect infant and child development The hospital admission group in our study reported a growing sense of boredom and anxiety during their admission, which is in line with earlier work on hospitalization during pregnancy: women report concerns for the health of their future baby, feeling of helplessness and loneliness while being separated from home, family and friends. Lack of privacy, when admitted, affected our patients’ contact with health care providers, partner, kids (if present) and other family and friends. In contrast, the experiences at home in our domiciliary group were more positive: although they still felt like a patient at times, the domiciliary group responded that the comfort of their own home and bed was very pleasant. In this group, only a minority of participants reported being anxious at times at home, while not having a physician or nurse nearby. Findings from our and previous studies reveal that domiciliary care could provide important psychological benefits during pregnancy. When women’s perception of low-risk pregnancy and quality of care experience improve with domiciliary care, this may contribute to an increase in quality of life