262669 Utilizing community partnerships to implement and evaluate a culturally competent prenatal education curriculum

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 : 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM

Fernanda Crivici, MPH , March of Dimes, California Chapter, Glendale, CA
Cheryl Anderson , March of Dimes, California Chapter, El Centro, CA
Dana Edelman, MPH, CHES , March of Dimes, California Chapter, San Francisco, CA
Maura Georges, MPH, MSW , March of Dimes, California Chapter, San Francisco, CA
Janet Macken , March of Dimes, California Chapter, El Centro, CA
Peyton Mason-Marti, MPH , March of Dimes, California Chapter, San Francisco, CA
Carolyn Agurcia-Parker, DrPH , Community Health Research Consulting, Cypress, TX
Tracy Becerra, MPH, OTR/L, PhDc , Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Becoming a Mom/Comenzando bien is a 9 session Spanish bilingual, prenatal education curriculum facilitated by trained lay health educators. March of Dimes California Chapter formed partnerships with Early Head Start programs, promotoras associations, secondary schools, hospitals, and private obstetric practices in Los Angeles and Imperial Counties to implement and evaluate Comenzando bien with the goal of improving knowledge and health behaviors that promote healthy pregnancies.

Comenzando bien was implemented in 9 sites reaching 298 women. The majority of participants were Hispanic (90%), between the ages of 16-30 (76%), spoke Spanish at home (79%), and were insured through Medicaid (90%). Pre- and post-test survey analysis demonstrated statistically significant change (p<.05) on questions including: agreeing that a pregnant woman should receive prenatal care even if she feels healthy, appropriately identifying preterm labor signs and postpartum symptoms and agreeing that a woman should take a multi-vitamin after having a baby. The program completion rate was 80%. Eighty two percent of participants rated their experience as excellent, 94% said that the program provided them with social support, 98% said that they learned new information, 90% reported having a postpartum appointment, and 63% reported taking a multivitamin with folic acid daily postpartum.

By forming partnerships with local organizations, the March of Dimes was able to implement and evaluate the program in diverse settings. The improvement in participants' knowledge and behaviors suggests that Comenzando bien may be an effective intervention to promote prenatal and postpartum health and may represent an opportunity to improve upon birth outcomes.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify steps to forming partnerships with community agencies to implement an educational curriculum. 2.Discuss successful train-the-trainer strategies for preparing lay health educators. 3.Describe components of a culturally competent prenatal health curriculum.

Keywords: Prenatal Care, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I coordinated the trainings of the health educators, implemented the evaluation and contributed to the writing of these findings.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.