Investigation of the relationship between pregnant women's health practices and their concerns about birth and postpartum period

Object: The aim of this study is to investigate relationship between health practices of pregnant women and their concerns about delivery and postnatal period. Material and Method: This research, on October 2018-December 2018, the applicant was carried out with 336 pregnant women who met criteria for participation in volunteer and research criteria at the antenatal polyclinics of Çanakkale Mehmet Akif Ersoy State Hospital. ''Characteristics of Pregnant Women Questionnaire'', ''Health Practice Questionnaire-II (HPQ-II) '' and '' Birth and Postpartum Concerns Scale for period (BPCS) were used in data collection phase. When relationship between mean scores of HPQ-II and BPCS was examined; It was determined that there was a positive, weak and insignificant relationship between health practices of pregnant women and their postpartum and postnatal anxiety (r=0,064, p>0,05). It was found that there was a positive and significant weak correlation between total HPQ-II mean score and concerns about labor and concerns about behavior of health personnel during delivery (r = 0.1108, p <0.05; r = 0.112, p <0.05). Results: The average point of HPQ-II of the pregnant women participating in study was 127.412.2 and total mean score of BPCS was found to be 5.51.3. Conclusion: It was determined that health practices were good and worries about birth and postpartum periods were moderate according to total mean scores of pregnant women from HPQ-II and BPCS. It was concluded that health practices of pregnant women did'nt affect their worries about birth and postpartum period. Key words: Pregnancy, health practices, anxiety, birth and postpartum period.