Effects of Social Support and Self-Efficacy on Maternal Prenatal Cares Among the First-Time Pregnant Women, Iranshahr, Iran

Social support and perceived self-efficacy affect health-related behaviors and play an important role on mother's adaptability with pregnancy. This paper aims to study the impact of educational interventions based on social support and perceived self-efficacy on maternal prenatal care.
The present study is a before after experimental study in which 90 first-time pregnant women were randomly selected and divided into two 45- participants experimental and control groups. Data were collected from 21 January to 20 May 2016. Determining the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, we used the panel of experts and Cronbach's alpha. The data collected from the two groups were compared before and 3 months after intervention and were analyzed by SPSS 18.
Unlike the control subjects, there was a significant difference in maternal prenatal cares before and after an educational intervention between the scores of social support and perceived self-efficacy in the experimental group (p Developing an educational program based on social support and perceived self-efficacy on maternal prenatal cares is helpful and efficient. The health system, family and society are in charge of making facilities and opportunities to improve social support and perceived self-efficacy in pregnant women, resulting in improved maternal prenatal cares.