The Relationship between Antepartum Symptoms Experienced by Pregnant Women and Risk Perception During Pregnancy

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between antepartum symptoms experienced by pregnant women and risk perception during pregnancy. Methods: The study was cross-sectional descriptive. The sample consisted of 615 pregnant women who applied to Sivas Numune Hospital for healthy pregnancy follow-up between the 9th and 40th gestational weeks between 01.10.2020-31.01.2021. Data were collected with Personal Information Form, Pregnancy Symptom Inventory (PSI) and Pregnancy Risk Perception Scale (PRPS). Analyses included descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, chi-square tests, and Pearson correlation analysis.Results: The mean gestational week of the pregnant women was 22.18±9.42. The mean total score of PSI symptom frequency was 39.85±16.57 and the mean total score of symptoms restricting daily activities was 54.28±9.55. The mean total score of the PRPS was 2.71±1.69; the mean score of risk perception towards the baby was 2.49±1.92; and the mean score of risk perception towards oneself was 2.99±1.82. Symptom frequency was weakly and positively correlated with overall risk perception (r=0.150, p