| Résumé : |
Background: Historically, antenatal education classes have been available to support
new parents as they make the transition to parenthood. While national guidelines specify that new parents should be offered antenatal education, individual trusts decide how to implement this. A resource pack, Preparation for birth and beyond (PBB) (Department of Health (DH) 2011 a), offered guidance on this issue. It highlighted the needs of different groups, including fathers, women from minority ethnic groups and young women and how these could be addressed.
Purpose: To investigate the range, frequency, duration, and groups offered antenatal education classes in National Health Service (NHS) trusts and to determine the extent to which the PBB resource had been utilised.
Study design: Two linked cross-sectional surveys.
Ethical approval: The survey was service evaluation, thus NHS ethics and organisational
approvals were not required.
Methods: Two national surveys were undertaken across all NHS trusts providing maternity services in England. The first sought perspectives of Heads of Midwifery (HoMs), as service leads; the second was sent to facilitators of antenatal education classes, who are closer to service delivery. Questions to HoMs included service configuration and the priority accorded antenatal classes. Facilitators' questions addressed current provision and availability for different groups. Both were asked about experiences of using the PBB resource.
Results: Information was returned by 136 of the 137 trusts, an overall response rate of 99.3 per cent. While all trusts offered some provision there was considerable variation, including the number of sessions. Courses most frequently had three (n=33, 28%) or four (n=35, 30%) sessions, while 14 per cent (n=16) offered one or two sessions. Provision for specific groups varied; few trusts offered men-only sessions (n=9, 8%); almost half (n=57, 48%) enabled separate discussion for men and women during the sessions. Eighty (68%) trusts provided specific classes for young parents. Specific sessions for women from minority ethnic groups were available in 25 trusts (21 %).
The PBB resource had been used in fewer than half the trusts (n=51, 43%); a third were unaware of the pack (n=21, 33%). Of the 51 that had used it, 37 (73%) reported that the
resource was helpful.
Conclusion: Antenatal classes varied considerably with potential for some groups to receive limited or no meaningful provision, including those whose needs were previously identified as under-served. We identified challenges to antenatal education provision and only partial use of a new resource, reflecting the need for additional approaches to dissemination. |
trié(s) par (Pertinence décroissant(e), Titre croissant(e)) Faire une suggestion Affiner la rechercheD'amour et d'enfant, d'enfant et d'amour.../ in Spirale : la grande aventure de monsieur bébé, 26 (juin 2003)
