Qur’anic Bibliotherapy Intervention in Pregnant Women Experiencing Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: A Qualitative Exploratory Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The disease caused by coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) has been stated as a global epidemic by the WHO. The COVID-19 pandemic adds many risk factors to maternal mental health during the perinatal period. The impact of anxiety during pregnancy is adverse obstetric consequences such as premature birth, inadequate antenatal care, requests for elective cesarean delivery, low APGAR scores of infants, and postpartum depression. Nursing interventions to overcome anxiety can be done through spiritual and religious intervention approaches. One of the spiritual interventions for the Muslim population to improve religious coping is Qur’anic Bibliotherapy (QB) as Islamic bibliotherapy. AIM: This study aimed to explore the use of QB interventions for pregnant women experiencing anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to explore the experience of the intervention given to the informant. The qualitative samples were ten respondents with moderate-to-severe anxiety levels. The anxiety instrument used was the Zung Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: The themes obtained from in-depth interviews with semi-structured interviews were recognizing COVID-19 and its perceived impact, the impetus for changing resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic, parents’ role, and the benefits of QB for pregnant women in the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: QB encourages informants’ positive thinking, feeling, spiritual, and attitude patterns. QB can be used as a complementary Islamic intervention for health workers, especially nurses, in providing nursing care to Muslim patients.