Comparative Effect of Attachment and Relaxation Training on Perception of Fetal Movement and Mother's Anxiety in Primiparous Women: A Randomized Controlled Study

Educational methods can be effective in reduction of mother’s anxiety and improvement of fetal movements. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of attachment and relaxation training on fetal movements. This randomized controlled clinical trial by using the table of random numbers was conducted on 126 primigravida women who had referred to Hafez and Shoushtari hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2012. The participants were randomly divided into relaxation, attachment and control groups, each containing 42 subjects. The interventions of maternal-fetal attachment training and relaxation took part in four 60-90 min classes held once a week and each meeting was held with 14 mothers in both intervention. Spielberger’s anxiety scale and Cranley’s attachment scale were completed before and after the intervention were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed the mean age of the participants was 23.9 years. No significant difference was found among the 3 groups regarding the mean score of anxiety (0.58) and mean number of fetal movements (0.52) before the intervention. However, the mean and standard deviation of anxiety score was reduced after the intervention in the two intervention groups compared to the control group (p = 0.036). So, the mean number of fetal movements was increased after the intervention in the two intervention groups compared to the control group (p<0.001). In conclusion, attachment and relaxation training was increased their mother’s perception of fetal movements which are effective in fetal health but in the relaxation group the difference was not statistically significant. Therefore, they can be used as a routine prenatal educational program.