The Effect of ‘Transition to Motherhood’ Program Applied to Primiparous Women on Self-Evaluation, Postpartum Problems, and the Maternal Attachment: A Single Blind Randomised Controlled Trial

Objective: Pregnant women who have no experience in the transition to motherhood face various problems both in the prenatal and postpartum period. It is inevitable that this situation will affect the health of both the mother and the baby. Design: This research was conducted as a randomized, controlled, single-blind pretest-post-test experimental study. Setting: It was performed with primiparous women registered two Family Health Centers in Samsun, Türkiye. Sample: 73 pregnant meeting the inclusion criteria between December 2019 and December 2021. Methods: : Pretest was applied to the sample group, Transition to Motherhood program based on Meleis’ Transition theory was applied to the experimental group; two post-tests were applied to the sample group at the postpartum sixth week and fourth month. Main outcome measures: Postpartum Self-Evaluation, Postpartum Physical Symptoms Severity and Maternal Attachment. Results: : The mean age of the experimental group was 26.91±3.10, 45.7% of them had university or higher education level, 77.1% of them had planned pregnancy, 88.6% of them had fear of birth. There was no statistically significant difference between the total mean scores of Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire and Prenatal Attachment Inventory applied as pretest of the pregnant women in the sample group (p>0.05). There was statistically significant difference between the scores of Postpartum Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, Postpartum Physical Symptoms Severity and Maternal Attachment Inventory administered as first posttest, and scores of Maternal Attachment Inventory administered as second posttest (p<0.05). Conclusion: The Transition to Motherhood program had positive effects on postpartum self-assessment, postpartum physical symptom severity and maternal attachment of the primiparas.