Using health education community baby showers to bridge disparities in knowledge of perinatal health factors

Background: Perinatal factors including gestational age (GA), delivery mode, and breastfeeding impact both mothers and newborns. There is little information regarding awareness of these factors among pregnant women and the efficacy of health education community baby showers (HECBS) to increase knowledge about these issues.

Methods: Pre- and post-tests were completed by women who attended HECBS sessions to collect baseline knowledge and to measure the effectiveness of the education.

Results: 263 women attended 11 different HECBS where 62% were Hispanic. Prior to the education session, nearly 30% of participants did not know the correct definition of term GA and 59% were unaware that it was not a good idea to schedule delivery at 35-36 weeks. Only 66% of the women knew that cesarean deliveries were not safer than vaginal deliveries. There were significant ethnic disparities in both pre- and post-test scores. Hispanic women had lower baseline knowledge than non-Hispanics (p=0.04) and despite substantial gains in scores, had lower post-test scores (p=0.001). Only 69% of Hispanic women recognized that BM and formula do not have the same nutritional value as opposed to 84% of non-Hispanics (p=0.005). After the educational sessions, this increased to 82% of Hispanic women (p=0.002). There were no significant differences in knowledge gains comparing the teaching styles, level of schooling, or whether participants had prior children.

Conclusions: HECBS are unique and effective means of increasing awareness in pregnant women regarding perinatal health factors and can bridge disparities in the knowledge of these factors among different ethnicities.