Nursing Care for Pregnant Women at Risk of Preterm Labor and Its Impact on Pregnancy Outcomes

Abstract

Background: A baby born after 20 weeks of gestation but before 37 complete weeks is known as preterm labor (PTL). Approximately one million children die each year due to complications of preterm labor. Providing a range of nursing interventions to mothers with the goal of identifying and modifying social and biomedical risks to improve mother's health and reach desired pregnancy outcomes. The incidence of preterm labor, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and risk factors can all be decreased with adequate nursing care. The aim is to evaluate the impact of nursing care for pregnant women at risk of preterm labor on pregnancy outcomes . Research Design: A quasi-experimental research design was employed in this study . Setting: Minia University Hospital's antenatal care department served as the study's location for maternity and child care. Antenatal care department divided in to highly dependency unit (HDU) and antenatal care unit. Tools of data collection consist of : interviewing questionnaire, preterm labor assessment, life style & activity assessment and pregnancy outcomes assessment . Results: It showed that nursing intervention that provided to study group was effective to reduce incidence of preterm labor to 15.3% delivered at 34 < 37 weeks gestation but in control group preterm labor at 34 < 37 weeks gestation reached to 44.0% P – value =.003.there were a high statistical differences in improvements of the study group compared to control ones regarding fetal outcomes as birth weight, Apgar scores (1st min), admission to NICU, neonatal jaundice, hypoglycemia, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS),and the needed for resuscitation (p-value ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: there were highly statistically significant improvement in pregnancy outcomes among study group after applying of nursing care intervention compared to the control group ( p - value ≤ 0.01). Recommendation: Nursing care to prevent preterm labor handout should be written in a clear, simplified, and comprehensive explanation in order to raise the awareness of pregnant women regarding these issues