Relaxation -- Focused Nursing Care in Threatened Preterm Birth: Can it be a Complementary Treatment?

Preterm birth is stated to be one of the research priority issues of the World Health Organization. This is due to the prevalence of preterm birth with high rates in developed and developing countries in spite of increasing technology, treatment, and care possibilities. Preterm birth rates are high in our country, too. One of the preventable causes of preterm birth is stress. Stress has been proven to cause threatened preterm birth by recent research in the literature. In this article, relaxation-focused nursing care (RFNC) was developed based on the HypnoBirthing philosophy and transactional model that can be used to reduce stress in women with threatened preterm birth. While the HypnoBirthing philosophy argues the birth process is a normal, natural and healthy function, the transactional model treats stress as a relationship between individuals and their environment. This program was developed to extend the pregnancy period of women who are pregnant and have threatened preterm birth and to protect and improve the health of mother and fetus. The program was scheduled for 16 hours in two days. A study in which the program was applied reported that the anxiety of the mother decreased, the duration of pregnancy was extended, and the satisfaction with nursing care increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]