Infant mortality is caused by various health problems, especially since the gestation period, even starting before the gestation period. Stress during pregnancy affects the motor, cognitive, and emotional development of the baby. This study aims to determine the effect of interactive pregnancy education (IPE) on decreasing levels of cortisol, epinephrine, and its relationship with stress levels in third-trimester primigravida pregnant women. This research is a quasi-experimental study using a nonequivalent control group design, which has two groups, namely the experimental group and the control group. The authors compared the experimental group that was given the intervention with the control group that was not given any treatment. This research was conducted in the three Community Health Centers in Indonesia from June 2022 until December 2022. The samples were 30 third-trimester primigravida pregnant women for the intervention and control groups. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests with SPSS 22 software. The results of this study indicate that IPE has a good impact on pregnant women, where there is a significant relationship in the post-test cortisol and epinephrine levels in the intervention group. This indicates that IPE contributed to the difference in post-test scores in the intervention group. The IPE method is effective in reducing stress levels and cortisol levels in pregnant women, especially in pregnant women with high levels of stress.
Keywords: cortisol levels; epinephrine levels; interactive pregnancy education (IPE) intervention; pregnant; stress; third-trimester primigravida.
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