Investigation of body perception in pregnant women according to physical changes in pregnancy

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the body perception in pregnant women according to physical changes occurring during pregnancy. Methods: This study was conducted with the pregnant women who applied to polyclinic of a government hospital at a city which in the middle of Turkey, as descriptive. Study was conducted with 300 pregnant women. Data were collected by using an Informative Form and Body Perception Questionnaire. Data were evaluated by using percentage, mean, One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Independent Samples Test and One-way Anova importance tests with Pearson correlation. Results: Pregnancy mask, abdominal striae, edema, body perception scores were higher in pregnant women and it was significant as statistically (p<0.05). Body perception scores were found to be higher in pregnant women with low income and those with health problems in pregnancy (p<0.05). In addition, body perception scores increased as the age increased [r(300)=0.166; p p<0.01]. Discussion and Conclusion: As a result, body perception scores of women, who experienced some physical changes during pregnancy, increased.