“Strong like a lioness in pregnancy!” Activating personal resources and reducing stress with the Zurich Resource Model (ZRM®)—an uncontrolled intervention study

Abstract

Background: Every pregnancy brings changes, which can lead to stress and ambivalent feelings for the pregnant person. These feelings can have a strong impact on the well-being and health of mother and the unborn child. To promote a healthy pregnancy outcome, the research literature recommends strengthening of mental and physical resources. The Zurich Resource Model (ZRM) is a resource-activating self-management training, which according to recent study results can support emotional regulation and reduce stress. Methods: The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of the ZRM during first-time pregnancy. It was hypothesized that the pregnant person by activating their personal resources will reduce their stress level and the subjective well-being can be increased. The constructs “stress” and “subjective well-being” were operationalized using five different psychometric parameters. A quasi-experimental uncontrolled 6 h online intervention study with the ZRM in January 2021 was conducted with 32 pregnant women, based on a pre–post-follow-up design. For hypothesis testing, 1‑factorial analyses of variance (rmANOVAs) were performed Results: 1-factorial rmANOVAs showed that the ZRM-Intervention could reduce experiencing stress in general and pregnancy-related stress as well as experincing anxiety. The ability of action-orientation and emotional well-being was increased. An increase in subjecitve vitality was shown using descpritive statistics. Conclusion: The ZRM intervention proved to be an effective method for optimizing stress management and increasing well-being during pregnancy. It can be used in addition to the usual childbirth preparation. Further research is needed, especially to ensure the transferability of the results including a control group.