Effects of the Empowerment Program on Preterm Birth Prevention Behaviors among High-Risk Pregnant Women at Ratchaburi Hospital
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Abstract
This quasi-experimental research, utilizing a two-group pretest-posttest design, aimed to examine the effects of an Empowerment Program on preterm birth prevention behaviors among pregnant women at risk with a gestational age of 20–32 weeks receiving antenatal care at Ratchaburi Hospital between December 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025. Purposive sampling was used for recruiting participants, divided into a control group and an experimental group, with 30 participants in each. The research instruments included the Empowerment Program for pregnant women at risk of preterm labor, developed based on Gibson’s concept, and the Preterm Labor Prevention Behavior Questionnaire, with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .91. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test.
The results revealed that pregnant women at risk of preterm labor, after participating in the Empowerment Program, had a mean score for preterm labor prevention behaviors significantly higher than before the experiment (t = 29.83, p < .001), and significantly higher than the control group at the .05 level (t = 11.26, p < .001).
The Empowerment Program plays a significant role in improving preterm labor prevention behaviors. Therefore, professional nurses in antenatal clinics should apply this program to pregnant women at risk of preterm labor to effectively promote preventive behaviors and reduce the likelihood of preterm birth.
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