A Study on Primigravida's Antenatal Self-Care Behavior and Maternal Knowledge

The antenatal self-care, one of antenatal management, was almost done by a pregnant woman herself. But It's especially difficult for primgravidas to cope with the change of being pregnant, and they also had insufficient knowledge of pregnancy, The purpose of this study was to serve as a basis for antenatal management, by grasping how much primigravidas performed antenatal self-care, how much they had maternity-related knowledge, and what factors affected those two factors. The subjects of this study were the primigravidas, selected from among visitors to a general hospital and a hospital for obstetrics and gynecology located in the city of K. A questionnaire survey was carried out over them from July 16 to August 19, 1998, to collect data. The test instrument used in this study for antenatal self-care behavior was one that modified the measurement instrument employed in studies by Kim Hae Won(1996), Lee Mi La(1984), and Yoon Young Mi(1994). Another one for maternity-related knowledge was Kim, Hae Won(1996)'s instrument. The collected data were statistically analyzed by SAS PC+. Frequency and percentage were calculated to find out the primigravidas' general characteristics, and the mean and standard deviation, rank were estimated to determine the degrees of antenatal self-care behavior and maternity-related knowledge, t-test and ANOVA were carried out to identify the general characteristic that affected antenatal self-care and maternity-related knowledge. and the relationship of antenatal self-care behavior to maternity-related knowledge was tested by Pearson correlation coefficient.The findings of this study were as follows; First, the age of the subjects ranged from 18 to 37, and their mean age was 26.43. Their mean gestational period was 24.87 weeks. 45% of the subjects were in the third-term pregnancy.Second, their total mean score in antenatal self-care behavior ranged from 94, the highest, to 36, the lowest. Its average score was 63.81(SD 9.98). The total mean score in maternity-related knowledge ranged from 20, the highest, to 1, the lowest, and its average score was 10.91(SD 4.59, 54.55 percent). Third, the general characteristics that gave impact on the primigravidas' antenatal self-care behavior were age, educational background, gestational period, experience of natural miscarriage, and experience of infertility test. A higher score in antenatal self-care behavior was gained by the primigravida group who had better educational background(F=3.29, p=.02), who was in the late stage of pregnancy(F=4.31, p=.01), who experienced a natural miscarriage(t=2.06, p=.04), and who went through a infertility test(t=-2.19, p=.04). Fourth, the general characteristics that had an influence on maternity-related knowledge were identified as the religion, the term of marriage, and the gestational period. A higher score in maternity-related knowledge was got by the primigravida group who had a religion(t=-2.02, p=.04), and who was in the late stage of pregnancy(F=5.77, p=.003). The term of marriage also made a significant difference(F=3.46, p=.02). Fifth, the relationship of the total mean score between antenatal self-care behavior and maternity-related knowledge was found to be at r=. 37(p=.0001). In this study, an attempt was made to affirm the subjects' characteristics, the degree of their antenatal self-care behavior, and the extent of their maternity-related knowldege, to confirm what characteristics affected significantly primigravida's antenatal self-care behavior and maternity-related knowledge, and to verify that there was a relationship between the two variables. The meaning of this study might be backed up by the fact that its findings would serve as a basis for primigravida's efficient antenatal management in the future.