Investigating the Determinants of Maternal Empowerment During Pregnancy: A Strategy for Prenatal Healthcare Promotion

Background: Empowerment of pregnant mothers promotes their health and pregnancy outcomes. Given the importance of empowerment of women during pregnancy, this study was conducted to determine the level of empowerment during pregnancy and its determinants. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 161 pregnant mothers who were selected using random cluster sampling in Gorgan, North East of Iran in 2015. To measure the level and determinants of empowerment, Kameda’s prenatal empowerment scale was used. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistical tests including linear regression analysis. P< 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The regression analysis showed that age at first pregnancy (βeta standardized coefficient (β)=0.474), marital satisfaction (β=0.239) and spiritual support (β=0.227) had the highest coefficient in the regression. However, the age of marriage, the size of family as well as experience of violence had negative impact on prenatal empowerment. Conclusion: Awareness of determinants of maternal empowerments could help policy makers to develop programs for promotion of mothers' empowerment during pregnancy. It seems that through developing counseling and educational programs with special focus on reducing domestic violence and enhancing marital satisfaction as well as offering spiritual support could promote prenatal empowerment and as a consequence facilitate moving towards safe motherhood.