comparison of pregnancy-related concerns, perceived social support, and anxiety between pregnant mothers with and without participation in antenatal education classes

Introduction: pregnancy-related concerns may adversely affect obstetric outcomes. it is crucial to manage these concerns to ensure the well-being of the mother and the fetus.objective: this study aims to compare the pregnancy-related concerns between pregnant mothers with and without participation in antenatal education classes (aec).materials and methods: this comparative-analytical study was conducted on 160 pregnant mothers selected by a consecutive sampling method, in two groups of intervention (n=80; participated in the aecs held in a clinic belonged the iranian social welfare organization) and control (n=80; not participating in the aec, referred to a governmental teaching hospital in rasht, iran). the data were collected from august 2020 to may 2021 during the 20th and 37th weeks of gestation using the prenatal distress questionnaire (pdq), zimet’s multidimensional scale of perceived social support, and spielberger’s trait anxiety inventory. the statistical analyses were done using mann-whitney u test, wilcoxon test, multivariate analysis of covariance, analysis of covariance, and multiple general linear regression analysis. the significance level was set at 0.05.results: the mean age of the pregnant women was 29.63±3.86 and 28.56±4.84 years in the intervention and control groups, respectively. most of them (86.88%) had experienced two pregnancies. the mean score of perceived social support was 47.99±5.72 in the intervention group and 46.50±6.08 in the control group. the mean score of trait anxiety score was 31.17±8.32 in the intervention group and 31.62±8.85 in the control group. compared to the control group, the intervention group showed a significant reduction in concerns about birth and the baby (p=0.018, η2=0.036), weight/body image (p=0.001, η2=0.147), and emotions and relationships (p=0.001, η2=0.095) in the 37th week of gestation following the end of the course. participation in the educational course (β=-3.88, 95% ci; -5.075%,-2.685%, p=0.042) and the number of pregnancies (β=-1.44, 95% ci; -2.479%, -0.411%, p=0.006) were significant predictors of pregnancy-related concerns in the 37th week of gestation.conclusion: the pregnant mothers participating in the aecs experience fewer pregnancy-related concerns compared to those without participation in the aecs. hence, such training courses seem worthwhile to handle the expecting mothers’ psychological worries about the dimensions of pregnancy-related concerns.