The effect of childbirth preparation courses on the reduction of anxiety of pregnant women referring to health centers of Sirik in Hormozgan, Iran

Background and Objectives: Delivery is a stressful event in a woman's life which is often accompanied by anxiety. Lack of awareness of unknown pregnancy problems is the cause of increase of mothers` anxiety and medical intervention. The present study was done to measure the effect of childbirth preparation training classes on the anxiety of pregnant mothers. Materials and Methods: This was a semi-experimental study for which 98 pregnant women were selected from those who had referred to the Sirik health clinics by using convenience sampling. They were allocated into the experimental and control groups randomly. The experimental mothers` group were subjected to 8 sessions of preparation for childbirth courses and the control group only received a routine prenatal training. Data were collected using pregnancy anxiety questionnaire (PRAQ) in two steps of pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using chi-square, t-Test and ANOVA. Results: The results showed that there was not a significant difference in anxiety level before the intervention between the two groups. However. There was remarkable decline in all aspects of pregnancy anxiety except fear of variations and common states of fear (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our findings showed that mothers` anxiety decreased due to participation in preparation for childbirth courses. Thus, implementing this program as a continuous intervention process for pregnant mothers is recommended.