The Effect of Relaxation-Focused Nursing Care on Stress, Cortisol and Birth Week in Threat of Preterm Birth: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Preterm birth is seen in 7-12% of all pregnant women and according to estimations about 15 million infants are delivered each year. Preterm birth is an extremely important problem in terms of its effects on newborn's health, mother's health, community and economy. Preterm birth causes the newborn chronic pulmonary disease; gastrointestinal, immunologic, central nervous system, auditory and visual problems; long-term motor and cardiovascular system diseases; and cognitive, visual, behavioral disorders. While preterm birth causes the women postpartum anxiety, stress and depression; it also leads to newborn intensive care costs, long-term complex health care needs for families and community and has serious consequences for public service sector such as health insurance, education, other social support systems and economy. Some factors initiate preterm birth, whereas 70-80% of them start spontaneously, remaining 20-30% has iatrogenic origin. It is reported that there is no known and effective treatment for preterm birth. It is reported in literature that stress which is one of the risk factors of preterm birth, causes preterm birth. If stress causes threat of preterm delivery, reducing stress may delay preterm birth and the complications of preterm birth on newborn and mother's health and also its economic and social burden can be reduced. National and international studies related to the effect of coping with stress on threat of preterm birth are lacking. It is thought that preterm birth can be prevented in women with threat of preterm birth through developing mechanisms to cope with stress and reducing stressors. Since nurse provides 24-hour care for woman diagnosed with the threat of preterm birth, the nursing care may be effective in this aspect.