Maternal experiences of women who had received salutary childbirth education: A descriptive qualitative study.
Ayse Deliktas Demirci, Pervin Ahmedova, Kamile Kabukcuoglu
PMID 39101537WHAT IT FOUND
After attending a childbirth education program focused on personal and support resources rather than risk, women described seeing pregnancy and birth as normal, moving away from risk-focused worry, and using their own and others' resources.
Key findings
01Women described changing how they viewed pregnancy, birth and postpartum, seeing physical changes and contractions as normal rather than disease, and moving away from risk-focused worry.
02They reported becoming aware of their own bodies, values and abilities, and learning to seek and organise support from partners and others around birth and postpartum.
03They described gaining autonomy and emotional strength, rejecting pressure to be a perfect mother, and shaping their own postpartum experience.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Women were recruited in Türkiye, mostly had high educational levels, and needed internet access, so the experiences may not transfer to all maternity populations. The study had no random allocation or control group and did not test quantitative effects, so it cannot show that the education program caused the reported experiences. Only 15 women were interviewed after the program and 12 again 6 weeks after birth, with three women not continuing because of time. The authors designed and delivered the program, which may influence how participants described their experiences, even though the interviewer was not the facilitator. Participants were women who volunteered for childbirth education and had low-risk pregnancies, so it says little about women who did not seek education or had complicated pregnancies.
Declared interests
No specific funding was received, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the childbirth education program caused less anxiety or better maternal experiences. This was a qualitative report of women's own accounts after a program with several components, designed and delivered by the authors, with no random allocation or control group. The contribution of any single component cannot be separated.