• A review of various aspects of health promotion behavior during pregnancy: Review Article
  • Azita Fathnezhad-Kazemi,1,* Sepideh Hajian,2
    1. Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Islamic Azad University, Tabriz branch, Tabriz, Iran.
    2. Department of Midwifery & Reproductive Health, Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: The adoption of a health-promoting lifestyle is an important strategy for achieving the desired outcomes of pregnancy and is important in the future health of mother and child. The aim of this study was to assess the various aspects of health promotion behaviors during pregnancy.
  • Methods: The data from this study was gathered from an advanced search for articles in databases Iranianmedex, Magiran, SID, Irandoc, PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus with Keywords (health-promoting OR lifestyle behaviors AND pregnancy) for Persian articles and English equivalent in Mesh with a time restriction of 2010-2017 and full text.
  • Results: From 3247 articles, after reviewing and studying references, articles with observational and qualitative design (4 Persian and 25 English papers) were included. A review of studies has shown that women have a high incentive to adopt health behaviors during pregnancy due to fear of fetal health, however individual and social factors, such as lack of time and information, Problems with the health system and cultural factors, are an obstacle to adopting such behaviors. In addition, factors such as demographic characteristics and individual’s beliefs and factors associated with pregnancy such as high-risk pregnancy and environmental factors such as social support and health system performance play an important role in addressing health behaviors.
  • Conclusion: In order to increase the potential of pregnant women to adopt healthy behaviors, changing the health system approach and paying attention to social determinants of health, in order to carry out the necessary interventions, it is recommended to conduct qualitative studies and appropriate design for deep study of the subject in the cultural background.
  • Keywords: Health promotion behavior, Pregnancy, Lifestyle, pregnant women