AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY TO ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ART THERAPY UPON STRESS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN A SELECTED COMMUNITY, BENGALURU, KARNATAKA

Background: Pregnancy is defined as the period from conception to birth. After the egg is fertilized by a sperm and then implanted in the lining of the uterus, it develops into the placenta and embryo and later into foetus. Pregnancy usually lasts for 40 weeks, beginning from the 1st day of the womens last menstrual period and lasting for 3 months. The changes observed in the system from conception to pregnancy, are principally the following namely- amenorrhoea, morning sickness, fatigue, heart burn, increased salivary discharge, occasionally depravity of appetite , headache, irritability of temper, the pressure of increasing pregnancy, protrusion of umbilicus, sometimes, varicose, swellings of the lower extremities, the breast also enlarge, an areola or brown circle is observed around the nipples and a secretion of lymph, composed of milk and water takes place. There had been over 30 million women who have experienced pregnancy and 27 millions have live births in a whole year in India. It also has been estimated that about 21 million girls aged between 15-19 years in developing regions become pregnant and approximately 12 million of them give birth. Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives. It usually happens when a person is in a situation that he or she do not feel like they can manage or control. Stress in pregnancy may lead to higher blood pressure. This puts the pregnant women at risk of serious increased blood pressure, called pre-eclampsia, preterm birth and having a low birth weight infant. Stress may also affect how someone respond to certain situations. There are various reasons which can results stress among pregnant woman.

Methods: This chapter deals with the description of research methodology. It is most important in research as it is the framework in conducting study. It indicates general pattern for organizing the procedure together valid and reliable data for investigations. It includes research designs, population and sample, sampling technique, inclusion and exclusion criteria, instruments, data collection and methods of data collection procedure and data analysis plan.

Results: Through this study we came to the conclusion that the maximum samples or the pregnant women had somewhat recovered from their increasing level of stress by the interventions of art therapy that was provided to them for fifteen days and also the mean value of the pretest and the post test score is 20.01 and 14.4, respectively.