Background: Centering pregnancy model has been associated with motivating behavior change, increasing women’s empowerment and satisfaction in comparison to standard, individual prenatal care. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of centering pregnancy model implementation on prenatal health behaviors and pregnancy related empowerment. Research design: A quasi-experimental (pre-posttest comparison group). Sample: A purposive sample of 151 pregnant women was recruited for the study and divided into centering pregnancy group was (75 women) and individual prenatal care group was (76 women). Setting: The study was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Outpatient Clinic along with meeting room at Outpatient Clinics' floor affiliated to Benha University Hospital. Tools used for data collection were a structured self-administrating questionnaire, prenatal health behaviors scale, pregnancy-related empowerment scale, and women’s satisfaction visual analogue scale. Results: post intervention, the total mean self-reported health behaviors score in the centering pregnancy group was higher than individual prenatal care group (18.13 versus 13.11) respectively. The mean pregnancy related empowerment score centering pregnancy group was significantly higher than individual prenatal care group (54.32 ± 3.28 versus 40.13 ± 7.74, p ≤ 0.0001) respectively. Two-thirds of the centering pregnancy group reported high satisfaction level compared to one-tenth of individual prenatal care group. Conclusion: A positive effect of centering pregnancy model, including a greater engagement in favorable health behaviors, a higher pregnancy-related empowerment, and higher satisfaction compared to individual prenatal care. Recommendation: Implementing centering pregnancy model of care more widely for promoting healthy behaviors and empowering pregnant women. |
