THE EFFECT OF FETAL MOVEMENT COUNTING ON PRENATAL MATERNAL ATTACHMENT AND DISTRESS IN PREGNANCY

This is a quasi-experimental study.

The population of the study consisted of pregnant women followed in a State Hospital in the capital city of Turkey in 2019. Power analysis (Sample error: 0.01 and power: 95%) was performed to determine the sample size of the study. In the power analysis, the mean score of the Prenatal Attachment Inventory was 71.88 ± 8.25 [15] and the mean score of the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale was 18.86 ± 7.37 [16]. The minimum number of participants required for each group was 24 (α = 0.05, 1-β = 0.80). To increase the reliability and validity of the study, the study sample consisted of 60 pregnant women (30 experimental and 30 control groups). The criteria for inclusion in the research sample were; being in 28 to 32 weeks gestation, primigravity, being at least literate, not having any chronic or psychiatric disease, not having any communication disability (speech, hearing, mental), non-risky pregnancy (preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, advanced age, and adolescent pregnancy, etc.), current or recent pregnancy is identified as not having any significant life difficulties (loss, illness, accident, etc.). The experimental and control groups were matched to be similar in terms of age, education and working status parameters.

Data Collection Instruments:

Research data were collected using the Descriptive Information Form, the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI), the Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale (TPDS) and the Fetal Movement Monitoring Card.

In the Descriptive Information Form, there are five questions including the socio-demographic informations of the pregnant women (age, education status, working status, and perceived income) and the gestational week.