Culturally Competent Prenatal Education Can Create Behavior Change

Comenzando bien (CB) is a prenatal education program created specifically for women in the Hispanic community. CB is designed to promote healthy pregnancies through two main components: the cognitive component is designed to provide accurate and timely information about prenatal care and pregnancy and the behavioral component promotes changes in prenatal health behaviors such as seeking prenatal care, taking prenatal vitamins and healthy eating.

Pre and post test evaluations were provided to women enrolled in CB prenatal education classes in 2010 at 38 various sites in Texas. 2,300 pre-tests were given during the first prenatal class and 2,115 post-tests collected at the final class. Whenever possible facilitators asked mothers to complete a follow-up postcard to obtain birth outcomes and information about behavior changes. 1295 participants reported these outcomes.

96.8% of participants reported that the program provided them with social support. The evaluation showed a significant gain in the number of women with the belief or attitude that seeking prenatal care is important from 36% at the pre-test to 98.3% at the post-test. Behavior change was also strongly demonstrated, 91% stated that CB classes caused them to change their eating habits and 84% changed their exercise habits. Of the 896 participants reporting birth outcomes, 96.8% delivered their babies full-term. This is only 3.2% preterm birth rate compared to the state-wide Hispanic rate of 13.5%. The results reveal that prenatal education provided in a culturally competent manner can improve birth outcomes, enhance participant's social support and create behavior change.