Emma Adamson
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Research suggests that antenatal education provides a range of benefits for women, babies and the wider family, including to reduce maternal stress, improves self-efficacy, support informed decision making, improve obstetric outcomes, encourage positive behaviour modification and promote a positive transition to parenthood.
Locally in BCUHB, antenatal education, particularly during and following the covid-19 pandemic, has been sporadic in its dissemination and inconsistent in its content.
The Project:
To develop and deliver evidence-based model of antenatal education sessions to help improve parental preparedness for labour, birth and early parenthood and support population health priorities, led by a multidisciplinary team.
Project Delivery:
The project will comprise 4 stages
Stage 1 – Engagement/consultation with stakeholders
Liaise with:
- Maternity Voices Partnership
- Under-served population
- Patient Experience midwife
- Maternity service
- Health visiting services
- Mental health services
- Pelvic health/women’s physio
- Dietetics
- Local Authority
- Third sector
Stage 2 – Establishment of MDT working group
Following period of engagement and consultation, establish working group of relevant professionals/services to support development and delivery of evidence-based, holistic antenatal education which includes standardised content, which also allows for localised flexibility, based on need
Stage 3 – Implementation
Women and partners will be invited to participate at the appropriate point in their pregnancy, to sessions delivered in a staggered approach across East, Central and West areas of BCUHB
Stage 4 – Evaluation
Evaluation will be both qualitative and quantitative; participant feedback will be sought following attendance at the sessions and a number of clinical outcomes will be also be measured.
Anticipated benefits:
There are a number of anticipated benefits including:
- Improved provision of evidence-based information to support informed decision making
- Improved awareness of approaches to maintain mental wellbeing
- Improved clinical outcomes in immediate and longer term i.e. reduced intervention, increased breastfeeding rates, improved parent-infant attachment
- Improved service user satisfaction with care
