The effect of prenatal class on anxiety to primigravida women on fear of childbirth

Background: Pregnant women in the world have been proven to have problems when facing childbirth, such as experiencing anxiety and efforts are needed to reduce this anxiety. Anxiety in pregnant women must be addressed immediately to prevent adverse effects on the health of the mother and fetus. Pregnant women's classes are one way to increase self-knowledge to reduce anxiety. Purpose: To determine the effect of prenatal class on anxiety to primigravida women on fear of childbirth. Method: Quantitative research with pre-experimental pre-test and post-test design, conducted in Gunungwungkal Health Center Work Area in June-August 2024 to pregnant women. Sampling using purposive sampling technique and obtained a sample of 75 participants. Sample inclusion criteria were pregnant women in trimester I-III, first pregnancy, have a smartphone, and are willing to be participants. The independent variable is the class of pregnant women, while the dependent variable is anxiety. Maternal anxiety was measured using the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS) questionnaire and the data analysis used was the Shapiro Wilk test and paired t univariate and bivariate. Results: Before the prenatal class intervention, most participants experienced severe anxiety, as many as 30 participants (40.0%). However, after attending the prenatal class, anxiety decreased and most participants no longer felt anxious, as many as 47 participants (62.7%) or experienced mild anxiety, as many as 26 participants (34.7%). Based on the normality test, the probability value (p-value) of both tests was 0.001 (<0.05). This shows that all circulating data is not normal, so the Wilcoxon signed rank test was carried out. Conclusion: There is a significant influence between prenatal classes on the level of anxiety of pregnant women in the first trimester-III of the first pregnancy. Several factors such as age, education level, employment status, and economy or family income also influence the anxiety experienced by pregnant women. Suggestion: The community, especially pregnant women, can attend mother classes to increase knowledge about pregnancy. Further research can be done using different methods, designs, sample sizes, and locations and exploring other factors that may influence anxiety in pregnant women.