Interactive Training Session Regarding Fetal Movements Counting and its Effect on Maternal Outcomes among High-Risk Pregnant Women

Abstract

Context: Fetal movement counting (FMC) has been proposed as a primary method of fetal surveillance especially for high-risk pregnancy. Aim: This study aimed to examine the effect of interactive training session regarding fetal movements counting on maternal outcomes among high-risk pregnant women. Methods: An experimental (pretest-posttest control group) research design was adopted. A simple random sample of 140 high-risk pregnant women was recruited. This study was conducted at the obstetrics and gynecology departments of Mansoura University Hospital, Egypt. Data were collected using two tools: structured interview schedule, and state-trait anxiety inventory. Results: the results revealed that pre-intervention, 100.0% of both the intervention and the control groups have a poor level of knowledge. While post-intervention, 90.0% of the intervention group have a high level of knowledge as compared to 100.0% of the control group have a poor level of knowledge. Regarding compliance to FMC, pre-intervention, 14.3% of the intervention group compared to 15.7% of the control group count their fetal movements. However, post-intervention, 100.0% of the intervention group count their fetal movements compared to 15.7% of the control group. Concerning anxiety, pre-intervention, 51.4% of the intervention group has a high anxiety level compared to 48.6% of the control group. While post-intervention, 87.0% of the intervention group has low anxiety level as compared to 62.9% of the control group that reported high anxiety level. Conclusions: After implementation of the training session, there is a highly statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups regarding the level of knowledge, the compliance to FMC, and the level of anxiety (p < 0.001). Therefore, conducting such simple and effective training sessions should be encouraged and recommended for high-risk pregnant women.