HEALTHY EDUCATION FOR PREGNANT WOMEN AND POSTPARTUM WOMEN

Abstract

Introduction: Woman during their lives go through many physiological and psychological changes, among them, there are two important moments: the pregnancy and the puerperium (postpartum). It is extremely important for women to have general guidance on maternal and child health during these two moments to help reduce morbidity and mortality of mother and baby for example. Objective: Verify and correlate the effects of a health education intervention on basic maternal and child health knowledge in pregnant women and postpartum women.  Method: Single-arm uncontrolled clinical trial was performed, that means, without a control group, with 64 volunteers. The volunteers participated in gatherings in which they received information about general maternal and child health, with the following topics: perineum, low back pain, types of deliveries, normal neuropsychomotor development of the child, posture in gestation, Shantala, breastfeeding and sexually transmitted diseases. In all, there were 8 meetings, with the volunteers' seasonal presence, with a multiple-choice evaluation at the last meeting. Results: There was a weak significant correlation when relating the presence of volunteers with the numbers of correct answers in the final test (p = 0.292). When the two samples were compared, it was noticed that most correct answers occurred in the same variables (types of deliveries, normal psychomotor development, breastfeeding and Sexually transmitted disease). Conclusion: This study provided an increase in knowledge of maternal and child health in general. There was a weak correlation in the effects of the health education intervention on basic maternal and child health knowledge.