| Keywords |
Public health center prenatal program ; BMI ; Pregnancy stress ; Childbirth confidence |
| Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a public health center prenatal program on Body Mass Index, pregnancy stress and childbirth confidence in pregnant women. A non-equivalent control group quasi experiment design was used. The intervention group (n=21) received the prenatal program over 9 weeks and the control group (n=23) received information leaflets about pregnancy and health counseling. Height, weight and structured questionnaire were used to collect the data from the pregnant women from August 10th to October 31st in 2013. The result showed that the prenatal program did not affect the Body Mass Index (t=.134, p=.894) and the childbirth confidence (t=0.887, p=.380) but affected positively on the pregnancy stress reducing (t=3.240, p<.01). This study suggests that promoting childbirth confidence may be an effective strategy of the prenatal program. Particularly, institutional supplementations based on the study is expected to set positive effects on the pregnant women's physical and mental health. |