Results
The pregnant women were between 18 and 43 years of age; 44.7% were 25 or younger, 47.2% were literate/elementary school graduates, 31.3% were high school graduates, 21.5% held a bachelor’s degree or above, and 89.4% non-working. Among their partners, 45.9% were literate/elementary school graduates, 33.8% were high school graduates, 20.3% held a bachelor’s degree or above, and 95.9% were employed. The couples’ marriage duration was 6.26±5.48. The gestational week of the women was 33.25±3.66 weeks, and 33.8% were primiparous and 66.2% were multiparous. The majority of the pregnant women did not have a history of miscarriage (65.3%) or abortion (79.1%). When asked about which sex they desired for their babies, 19% answered female, 13% answered male, and 68% did not mind. When asked about the sex of their babies, 40.7% answered female, 51.2% answered male, and 8.1% said that they did not know. All the pregnant women thought of breastfeeding after giving birth, 96.3% thought that breastfeeding was beneficial for the mother, and 91.9% thought that it was beneficial for the baby. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 25.9% of the pregnant women received breastfeeding training, while 74.1% did not.
When questioned about their knowledge of COVID-19, 80.9% claimed to be knowledgeable about COVID-19, while 19.1% claimed to be partially knowledgeable about the subject matter. 58.1% of the pregnant women stated their information source to be social media/internet, while 39.4% and 2.5% expressed their information sources to be TV and health personnel respectively. 84.1% stated that they isolated themselves at their homes and 98.4% claimed to obey mask/social distance/hygiene rules during the pandemic.
The scores obtained from PBSES ranged between 27 and 100, and the mean score value was found to be 79.08±13.86. Upon analyzing the pregnant women’s PBSES scores based on their age groups, the mean score of the pregnant women aged 26 or older was found to be significantly higher than that of the pregnant women aged 25 or younger (p<.05, Table 2). It was also determined that the pregnant women holding a bachelor’s degree or above had a significantly higher PBSES mean score than the pregnant women graduating from a high school or below (p<.05), and the difference between the two groups was highly significant (p<.001, Table S2). The working pregnant women were found to have higher mean scores than the non-working ones, and the difference between the two groups was highly significant (p<.01, Table S2).The pregnant women whose partners had a bachelor’s degree or higher were found to have higher PBSES mean scores than the pregnant women whose partners were high school graduates or below, and the difference between the two groups was significant (p<.05, Table S2).
The pregnant women with a history of abortion were determined to have higher mean scores than the ones with no history of abortion, and the difference between the two groups was highly significant (p<.01, Table S2). The pregnant women who did not mind about the sex of their babies were determined to have higher PBSES mean scores compared to the ones desiring to have a female baby, and the difference between the two groups was regarded to be significant (p<.05, Table S2).
The pregnant women who visited the polyclinic for their prenatal care checkups on time were found to have higher PBSES mean scores than the ones who did not, and the difference between the two groups was regarded to be highly significant (p<.01, Table 2).
It was seen that the pregnant women who thought breastfeeding to be beneficial had higher PBSES mean scores than those who were indecisive about the benefits of breastfeeding; however, the difference between the two groups was not deemed to be significant (p>.05, Table S3).It was also found that the pregnant women who thought breastfeeding to be beneficial for the baby had higher PBSES mean scores than those who were indecisive about the benefits of breastfeeding for the baby, and the difference between the two groups was highly significant (p<.01, Table S3). The pregnant women who received breastfeeding training during the COVID-19 pandemic were determined to have higher PBSES mean scores than those who did not receive such training, and the difference between the two groups was found to be significant (p<.05, Table S3).
It was found that the pregnant women who were knowledgeable about COVID-19 had higher PBSES mean scores compared to those who were not, and the difference between the two groups was found to be highly significant (p<.001, Table 2).
The pregnant women who thought that the pandemic did not affect their pregnancy were found to have h significantly higher PBSES mean scores than the pregnant women who thought otherwise (p<.05, Table 2).
No significant difference was found between the pregnant women’s marriage duration and their PBSES scores (r: -.05, p>.05, Table 3). A weak, negative, and statistically highly significant relation was found between the gestational week of the pregnant women and their PBSES (r: -.16, p<.01, Table 3). As the gestational week the pregnant women increased, their PBSES scores decreased. A linear multiple regression analysis (backward method) was conducted to evaluate altogether the effects of 13 independent variables determined to affect the PBSES scores in primary analyses. No high-level autocorrelation was found among the independent variables included in the regression model based on the correlation analysis and the multicollinearity statistics (Table 3).
Among the independent variables included in the regression model, five independent variables, namely employment status, thinking the pandemic to have an effect on pregnancy, partner’s educational status, desired baby sex, and abortion history, were excluded from the regression model in order since they did not have sufficient effect on PBSES Scores (p>.05). The importance of the remaining seven variables having a significant effect on the pregnant women’s PBSES scores based on the β coefficient in order (from the most important to the least important) is as follows; status of being knowledgeable on COVID-19, thinking breastfeeding to be beneficial for the baby (p<.001), visiting the polyclinic for prenatal care checkups on time, gestasyonel week, educational status (p<.01), age, and status of having received any training on pandemic (p<.05). These seven independent variables in question explained the change (variance) in the pregnant women’s PBSES scores by 25% (Table 2).
The PBSES scores of the pregnant women knowledgeable on COVID-19 were higher by 8.14 than those who were partly knowledgeable on the subject matter. The scores of the pregnant women thinking breastfeeding to be beneficial for the baby were higher by 9.10 than those who were indecisive about its benefits for the baby. The scores of the pregnant women going to their prenatal care checkups on time were higher by 6.16 than those who did not go their checkups on time. As the pregnant women’s pregnancy duration increased, their PBSES scores decreased by -.62. The scores of the pregnant women holding a bachelor’s degree or above were higher by 5.47 than those who were high school graduates or below. The scores of the pregnant women aged 26 or older were higher by 3.49 than those aged 25 or younger. The scores of the pregnant women receiving breastfeeding training during the COVID-19 pandemic were higher by 3.34 than those who did not participate in such training.
Discussion
Main findings
In the study, the pregnant women were determined to have high breastfeeding self-efficacy levels (79.08±13.86). Pregnant women have been determined to have high,16,17moderate,4,7,18 and low19 levels of breastfeeding self-efficacy in various studies conducted before the pandemic. It is a satisfying result that their breastfeeding self-efficacy has been found to be high during the pandemic.