Investigating the effect of virtual childbirth preparation education on the health practices of pregnant women, a systematic review study

Introduction: Health performance during pregnancy can be defined as actions that somehow affect the health of pregnant women, fetuses and newborns, and the consequences of pregnancy (۱). These actions include routine care during pregnancy, education about pregnancy and childbirth, receiving prescribed supplements and vitamins, regular exercise, proper weight gain, healthy eating habits, dental care and avoid of unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and alcohol, high-risk sexual acts, etc. Improving the health of mothers is the main priority of most countries as well as the World Health Organization (۲). Therefore, due to the existence of few studies in this field especially in Iran, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of participation in virtual childbirth preparation classes on improving the health performance of pregnant mothers, which is one of the most important goals of holding these classes .Methodology: Data collection was done by searching Scopus, Science Direct, Magiran, Elsevier and Google Scholar and PubMed search engines. The keywords used in the search include Virtual Education, Pregnant women, Health Practice and Pregnancy outcomes. A total of ۱۱ articles were found, of which ۹ were analyzed.Results: The results of the data analysis of the reviewed articles showed that the virtual training classes for childbirth preparation significantly increased the health performance of pregnant women in the intervention group (P<۰.۰۵).Discussion and conclusion: Several studies have investigated the effectiveness of face-to-face childbirth preparation classes on various dimensions of mothers' health. The results of the conducted studies indicate the effectiveness of face-to-face childbirth preparation classes in improving the health performance of mothers. According to the study of Bahrami et al (۳), mostly women those who participated in prenatal education classes, smoked less cigarettes, started their first medical visit earlier, and had more meetings with gynecologists and midwives. In Tajvar et al study (۴), women whoparticipated in virtual education classes performed better in relation to receiving special care during pregnancy, such as routine pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, and regular meetings with gynecologists and obstetricians or midwives, compared to the control group. Therefore, virtual education can be effective in obtaining correct pregnancy information and improving mothers' awareness and, as a result, their health performance.

Keywords:

Virtual Education , Pregnant women , Health Practice and Pregnancy outcomes.