Objective: This study was conducted to determine the effect of body perception on healthy living behaviors in pregnant women.

Materials and Methods: The sample of the study consisted of 251 pregnant women in the last trimester who applied to the pregnancy clinics of a state hospital located in a district center in the southeast of the country. The Pregnancy Information Form, the Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale and the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours in Pregnancy Scale were used to collect the research data. Descriptive statistics,independent samples t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the data.

Results: The mean age of the pregnant women participating in the study was determined as 28.14±5.86 and the mean gestational week was determined as 34.84±3.44. The mean scores of the women on the Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale and the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours in Pregnancy Scale were found to be 44.18±12.18 and 112.47±16.29, respectively. It was determined that there was a weak, negatively significant relationship between the pregnancy-specific body image scores of women and the healthy life behavior scores during pregnancy (r=-0.170, p<0.001).

Conclusion: It was determined that the pregnancy-specific body image level of women was moderate and the level of healthy life behaviors was high. In addition, it was observed that as the level of pregnancy-specific negative body image increased, healthy life behaviors decreased.