The impact of group prenatal care on pregnant women empowerment

Objective (s): This study was designed to assess the impact of group prenatal care on pregnant women empowerment. A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 70 pregnant women with 13 weeks of gestational age, whom referred to prenatal clinic of Akbarabadi hospital in Tehran, Iran. The pregnant women were randomly assigned to control (n=35) and experimental group (n=35). The intervention is designed for five, 120-minute sessions during gestation weeks 13 to 32. Each session was consisted of two parts: self-care (30 minutes) and group training (90 minutes). Data were collected on demographic and empowerment scale for pregnant women using a valid questionnaire. The majority of samples in two groups were between age 20 to 29 years with secondary educational level or higher, housekeeper, intermediate economic status, first pregnancy, and without receiving prenatal education. There were no significant differences between control and experimental groups at baseline. However, after intervention significant difference between control and experimental groups was observed for empowerment score (P= 0.013). The findings confirmed that group prenatal care was effective in improving empowerment in pregnant women.