Effects of Antenatal Education on Birth Perception, Fear, and Readiness

Plain-language summary

Birth is a multi-dimensional and unique experience for every woman, and it is influenced by a woman's social life. Fear of childbirth is a common issue that affects women's health and well-being before, during, and after pregnancy. The thought that childbirth will be painful triggers fear of childbirth. Fear of childbirth is closely related to the perception of traumatic birth. Antenatal education is important in coping with childbirth pain and traumatic birth pain, but the aim of adult education is not just to inform, but also to change individuals' perspectives on events. The transformative learning theory is a model used to change individuals' perspectives on events. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of antenatal education based on the transformative learning theory on traumatic birth perception, fear of childbirth, and birth preparedness in pregnant women. The study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial with 54 participants. Data collection forms included a personal information form, the Traumatic Birth Perception Scale, the Prenatal Self-Assessment Scale, and the Wijma Birth Expectancy/Experience Scale. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 23.0 (Chicago, Illinois) version was used for data analysis. Histogram and Q-Q plots, and the Shapiro-Wilk test were used to assess the normality of the data distribution. Descriptive data regarding women's demographic characteristics were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and mean values. Differences in demographic characteristics between groups were examined using the independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Chi-square test. Pre-test and post-test scores of the groups were analyzed using the independent sample t-test. A significance level of p\<0.05 was accepted.

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