ABSTRACT: This article is an intervention study to evaluate the effectiveness of training and counseling program for the prevention of constipation in pregnant women. Ethical approval of the study was obtained from Selcuk University, Faculty of Medicine, the work permit was obtained from Konya Public Health Department, and the study was conducted in Family Health Center No.28 in Selcuklu District of Konya Province. Pregnant women up to 14 weeks were included in the study as the monitoring of pregnant lasted for 24 weeks. The study included 40 out of 400 pregnant women over the age of 18 who agreed and met the requirements of the study. Personal Information Form, Constipation Severity Scale, Visual Comparison Scale, Bristol Stool Scale, Patient Assessment Constipation Quality Of Life, International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, and Assessment and Monitoring Form were used. After the first assessment conducted by the researcher, pregnant women have received home and workplace visits every month for six months, and when pregnant women came to the family physician for monitoring, they were provided with training and counseling services to prevent constipation. Data were analyzed in SPSS v21 and the results were considered significant when p<0.05. The homogeneity of the variables was evaluated by Leven’s test, and the normal distribution of data suitability was analyzed by Kolmogorov Smirnov’s test and histogram. Non-parametric tests were performed because the data distribution did not correspond to the normal distribution. Wilcoxon’s test, Cochran’s Q test, McNemar’s test, and Marginal Homogeneity test was performed. The average age of the pregnant women was 29.11±5.38 years, 62.9% were unemployed, 40.0% were high school graduates, 40.0% were bachelor graduates, other were primary and secondary school graduates. After training and implementation of individual programs, the participants revealed improvements and changes in nutritional habits. It is worth emphasizing that before the training and implementation of programs, type-1, type-2, and type-3 forms in the Bristol chart were more common among participants, after training this ratio decreased significantly. Type-4 and type-5 forms in the Bristol chart were less noticed, but after training, these indicators changed for the better. Thus, in conclusion, it can be emphasized that before training and the implementation of individual programs, constipation was present in all pregnant women, but after our training, we were able to get a good result and reduced this indicator, which at the end of the study was 28.6% among the participants. Furthermore, in the current study, compared to before and after training and counseling, significant improvements were also achieved in other indicators. This article gives an idea of the various factors leading to constipation during pregnancy, and every pregnant woman should be trained and consulted by specialists in this field.

Keywords: Pregnancy, Constipation, Training Program, Counseling Program