The Effect of Music to Pregnant Women on Birth Anxiety and Mental Well-Being: A randomized controlled study

Abstract

The research was conducted to determine the effect of music listened to during the third trimester of pregnancy on birth anxiety and mental well-being during pregnancy. The sample of the study included 50 pregnant women in each group, 100 in total, who applied to the Gynecology and Obstetrics Polyclinic of the State Hospital in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey for routine examination and Non-Stress Test (NST), who met the inclusion criteria for the study, who were listened to music (experimental group) and the control group. . The data of the study was collected by face-to-face interview method using the Personal Information Form, Oxford Birth Anxiety Scale (OWLS) and Warwick-Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) between January 15, 2019 and June 15, 2019. In the research, pre-test and post-test were applied to the experimental and control groups. A pre-test was applied to the experimental group, and then they were listened to music accompanied by daydreaming for 20 minutes, 5 times on different days each week. A posttest was administered at the end of the application. The control group was administered only the pretest and the posttest five weeks later. According to the results of the research, when the pre-test and post-test scores of the pregnant women participating in the experimental group were compared, it was seen that their concerns about pain during birth, distress, prenatal uncertainty, and interventions to be performed decreased in the post-test. Feeling good, self-confidence increased, mental well-being and coping levels increased. In line with these results, it is recommended that pregnant women be listened to music, given birth preparation suggestions, and implemented together with midwives in order to reduce birth anxiety and increase mental well-being during pregnancy.