Assess the Effectiveness of Benson's Relaxation on Stress among Antenatal Mothers Attending Outpatient Department in Selected PHC at Namakkal District

Background: Every pregnant woman experiences stress of some sort, whether it is financial fears or just how to assemble the crib correctly. These sorts of stress are common during pregnancy. But some women suffer extreme stress during pregnancy. Pregnancy is an experience full of growth changes, enrichment and challenges. It is a time of fear and expectation about becoming mother. Around 80% women experience these symptoms.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of Benson's relaxation on stress among antenatal mothers.

Design: Pre experimental one group pre and posttest design was adopted for the study. Setting: VK hospital and TPN hospital, Erode. Participants: 30 antenatal mothers fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected by convenient sampling.

Methods: A pretest was conducted by using Perceived Stress Scale. Immediately after pretest. Benson's relaxation was given one time (15 = 20 minutes) a day for 30 days and 31stday post test was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Benson's relaxation. Collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: In pretest, the mean score of the sample was 22.3 (SD= 1.34)) and the posttest mean score was 12.2 (SD = 0.72) with paired 't' value of 10.32. This showed that the Benson's relaxation was effective on reducing the stress among antenatal mothers. There was a statistically no significant association found between the post test scores of the sample with their demographic variables.

Conclusion: It seems that teaching pregnant women on relaxation could be effective in mother and her children. Therefore, attention should be paid to different methods for reducing stress in this group of mothers. Benson's relaxation is a non-pharmacological, cost effective and simple intervention without any adverse effects. The results proved that the Benson's relaxation was effective in reducing the stress among antenatal mothers.