Do first time mothers who take infant care classes have higher confidence in their ability to take care of their new baby?

Background: New mothers' parenting confidence is important to infant nurturing and healthy infant development. Consequently, mothers are often encouraged to take infant care classes in order to increase their parenting competence and confidence. Methods: 3,006 primiparous women age 18 to 36 who gave birth in Pennsylvania between 2009 and 2011 were interviewed one month after delivery to measure their utilization of infant care classes and their confidence in their parenting skills. Results: More than a third (37.6%) of participants attended one or more infant care classes during pregnancy. Surprisingly, women who had taken these classes were less confident in their parenting skills than those who had not (p<.0001). In addition, parental confidence was inversely associated with age, education, income, insurance coverage and marital status (all p<.0001). After controlling for these factors, taking infant care classes during pregnancy was no longer significantly associated with parental confidence (p=.274). Conclusions: First time mothers who take infant care classes report lower parenting confidence than those who do not. This is largely a function of differences in sociodemographic factors between those who do and do not take infant care classes.