The effects of breathing exercise in early pregnancy on nausea, vomiting and quality of life

Aim: This study was conducted with the purpose of determining the effects of breathing exercise in early pregnancy on nausea, vomiting and quality of life. Material and Method: This is a randomized controlled experimental study. As a result of the power analysis conducted before the study, the study was carried out with a total of 104 pregnant women including 52 in the experimental group and 52 in the control group. The data were collected between June 2019 and May 2020 by using a Personal Information Form, Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy Instrument (NVPI) and SF-36 quality of life scale. All women were monitored for four weeks by home visits and phone conversations every week. The researcher provided the women in the experiment group with breathing exercise training, asked them to do breathing exercises for four weeks (at least twice a day), and NVPI was filled out at each meeting. No intervention was applied among the women in the control group, and NVPI was filled out at each meeting. At the end of the study, NVPI and SF-36 quality of life scale were repeated for all women. In the analysis of the data, percentage distribuation, arithmetic mean, standart deviation, Pearson's chi-squared, independent-groups t-test, deperents groups t-test and Mann Whitney U test were used. Results: The nausea, vomiting and gagging scores of the women in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group for four weeks, and it was determined that the mean scores decreased towards a positive direction (p˂0.05). While it was observed that the experimental and control groups were similar according to the mean scores of the pre-test SF-36 quality of life scale sub-dimension of the study (p>0.05), in the posttest measurements it was observed that the SF-36 quality of life scale sub-dimension scores increased among the women in the experimental group, they decreased among the women in the control group, and these differences were significant in both groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that the breathing exercise applied among the pregnant women in their early pregnancy reduced pregnancy-related nausea vomiting and was effective in increasing their quality of life. Key Words: Pregnancy, nursing, breathing exercise, quality of life, nausea vomiting.