Comparison of Perceived Social Support and Psychological Well-being between Pregnant Women with Surrogacy, Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Natural Fertility

Infertility in women is a stressful experience and a critical period. By losing the chance to become pregnancy, women's level of psychological distress and anguish increases, and their psychological well-being decreases. Perceived social support for women can be affected and changed by infertility. The purpose of this research was to compare perceived social support and psychological well-being between pregnant women with surrogacy, Assisted Reproductive Technology )ART( and natural fertility in Isfahan. Methods: The method of this research was ex post facto. Therefore, 90 pregnant women with surrogacy and ART were selected among woment referred to Isfahan infertility clinics, while pregnant women with natural fertility were selected as controls by convenience sampling. These women responded to Mitchell and Zimeth's )2000( Perceived Social Support Scale and Ryff )1989( Psychological Well-Being. Results: The results of Multiple Analysis of Variance )MANOVA( showed that there was a significant difference between methods of fertility regarding perceived social support )important person and family( )P > 0.001(, and pregnant women with ART had higher perceived social support compared to pregnant women with natural fertility. In addition, surrogate women compared to the other two groups had lower perceived social support. Also there was a significant difference in psychological well-being subscales of positive relations, environmental mastery, personal growth, purposefulness )P > 0.001( and self-acceptance )P > 0.05( and the mean of psychological well-being in pregnant women with natural fertility was higher than the two other groups. conclusions: These results have important implications regarding the importance of psychological interventions for fertile women.