The Effect of Pregnancy School on Distress During Pregnancy

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of participation in pregnancy school on distress in pregnancy. 150 pregnant women who were referred to the Eski？ehir Public Hospital Pregnancy School between 31st October 2017 and 31st August 2018 and agreed to participate were included in the study. After obtaining consent, the Determination of Sociodemographic Characteristics form and the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale were completed by the investigator and then pregnancy education began. After completing the education, the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale was filled out again. The Shapiro Wilk test and two-way analysis of variance (single factor repeated) were used for the analysis of data. IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 was used for statistical analysis. The significance level was set at p<0.05. The mean score in the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale had significantly decreased from 15.17 ± 7.03 (before education) to 13.01 ± 7.03 (after education) (p=0.010). Moreover, the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale subcategory scores also decreased after education. This study revealed that participation in pregnancy education school has a positive effect on distress in pregnancy. Therefore, it is suggested that pregnancy education schools should be more widespread. Also all expectant parents-to-be should be encouraged to participate