Does Childbirth Preparation Education Affect Prenatal Adaptation?

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo determine the effect of childbirth preparation education on the prenatal adaptation of pregnant women.METHODSThis study design was a quasi-experimental; one-group pretest-posttest. This study was conducted with the participation of 42 pregnant women and their spouses. The educations were given in four sessions in a special area designed for childbirth preparation educations in a private hospital where the study was conducted. The data of the study were collected using the Pregnant Women Information Form and the Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire. Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire consists of seven subscales which are the well-being of pregnant women and their infants, acceptance of pregnancy, acceptance of motherhood, fear of childbirth, relationship with her mother and relationship with her spouse. The Wilcoxon signed rank test statistics were used to analyze the difference between the pretest and posttest PSEQ scores.RESULTSThe concerns about the well-being of pregnant women and their infants (p < .05), acceptance of pregnancy (p < .05), acceptance of motherhood (p < .05), fear of childbirth (p < .05), relationship with her mother (p < .05), relationship with her spouse (p < .05) subscale and total adaptation score (p < .05) were significantly higher before the education compared with the after the education. However, there was no significant difference between pre and post-education scores regarding readiness for birth subscale (p > .05).CONCLUSIONThis study showed that childbirth preparation education improves prenatal adaptation, acceptance of pregnancy and motherhood, relationship with her mother and relationship with her partner of pregnant women. In addition, it decreased fear of childbirth of pregnant women.