Effect of social support on fetal movement self-monitoring behavior in Chinese women: a moderated mediation model of health beliefs

Strengthening the management of women's self-monitoring during pregnancy is important to reduce fetal death in utero and improve maternal and infant outcomes. However, due to the lack of awareness among pregnant women about the importance of self-monitoring fetal movement, resulting in low behavioral compliance, adverse pregnancy outcomes remain common in China. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social support and health beliefs and the self-monitoring behavior of fetal movement. In addition, we examined the moderating and mediating effects of health beliefs on fetal movement self-monitoring. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 postpartum mothers in a tertiary hospital in China. The mothers were asked to complete a socio-demographic questionnaire, the fetal movement self-monitoring behavior questionnaire, the fetal movement self-monitoring health beliefs questionnaire, and the social support rating scale. Data from the questionnaires were analyzed and compared using SPSS 24.0 and PROCESS 3.2. The results of this study showed that the total scores of social supports, health beliefs, fetal movement self-monitoring were 42.98 ± 11.65, 78.605 ± 13.73, and 11.635 ± 2.86, respectively. The study found that when social support and health beliefs were included in the regression equation, both social support and health beliefs showed a positive correlation with fetal movement self-monitoring. Health beliefs partially mediated the effect of social support on fetal movement self-monitoring, accounting for 37.5% of the total effect. Social support and health beliefs play a crucial role in influencing the self-monitoring behavior of fetal movements. Therefore, strengthening social support and health beliefs during pregnancy has the potential to improve compliance with fetal movement self-monitoring behaviors for pregnant women.