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.