Effectiveness of A Codified Educational Behavioral Program on the Mental Health of Pregnant Women

Pregnancy, considered as a vulnerable period, exposes women to many new problems. Dealing with new conditions and problems can affect mental health of pregnant women. Hence, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a codified educational behavioral program on the mental health of pregnant women. In this quasiexperimental study, 61 pregnant women were selected via convinience sampling who were assigned into two experimental (n=31) and control (n=30) groups. The experimental group received 4 weekly sessions of an educational behavioral program in a health center in Ahvaz. The study participants completed General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) before the treatment as the pretest and four weeks after the treatment as the posttest. The study data were analyzed via chi square test, paired t- test and independent t-test and significant level of the statistical tests was set less than 0.05. The findings of the present study showed that mean score of mental health in the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group in the post test (21.1± 3.9 vs. 30.1 ± 6.7). Moreover, the anxiety score (p=0.01), somatoform symptoms (p=0.01) and depression (p=0.02) were significantly better in the experimental group than the control group in the post test, though the score of social dysfunction (p=0.16) did not demonstrate any improvements in this group. It is can be concluded that educational behavioral program, as a beneficial method of intervention, could be applied in order to improve the pregnant women’ mental health.