A Pilot Study on the Effectiveness of Hope-Focused Counselling for Psychological Well-Being in Post-abortion Primigravida Mothers

Background: Abortion is the most common complication during early pregnancy and may increase the risk of various physical and psychological disorders. While psychological interventions can help promote psychological well-being and hope levels among mothers with traumatic histories, a hope-fostering counseling program is considered one of these interventions. This study aims to investigate the potential effectiveness and feasibility of a hope-fostering counseling program on psychological well-being and hope levels among post-abortion primigravida mothers. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest-posttest design. Eight post-abortion primigravida mothers were recruited from two healthcare institutions to participate in this pilot testing. The intervention was adapted from Snyder's Hope theory and included six counseling sessions over six weeks during the post-abortion period. Counseling sessions were conducted via individualized discussion. The Arabic versions of the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire (PWB-18) and the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS) were administered at three occasions: before the first session and at the third and sixth interviews. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was used to analyze the study variables. Results: The mean PWB-18 and ADHS scores increased from 35.50 ± 8.77 and 19.25 ± 4.03 at baseline to 54.88 ± 6.64 and 31.00 ± 3.67 at the third-week assessment, and to 78.25 ± 4.53 and 48.88 ± 2.17 after the sessions, respectively. The results demonstrated significant improvement in PWB-18 scores (F (2, 14) = 412.49, p < 0.000) and ADHS scores (F (1.13, 7.922) = 301.19, p = 0.000) among post-abortion primigravida mothers after attending the hope-fostering counseling program. Conclusion: This pilot study demonstrates the program's feasibility. However, a larger sample and inclusion of additional abortion types are needed to confirm its effectiveness and generalizability.