Keeping baby SAFE in pregnancy: evaluating the brochure

Abstract

Objective: to gain a better understanding of women's baseline level of knowledge of stillbirth and determine whether giving written information during pregnancy results in improvement in knowledge about stillbirth.

Design: a pre-post intervention study.

Setting: women undergoing antenatal care at a small maternity hospital were asked, via questionnaire, about their knowledge of stillbirth both before and after reading an information brochure on the subject.

Participants: 22 pregnant women who were in the last trimester of pregnancy.

Results: a statistically significant increase in knowledge was evident in awareness of the incidence in stillbirth (p<0.001). Women also were more aware of some of the proactive things they could do to prevent this tragedy from occurring to them. This improvement in understanding may be attributed to reading the brochure.

Discussion: prior to reading the brochure all women understood the term 'stillbirth' but most lacked knowledge pertinent to understanding how often it occurs. The most significant difference noted between the pre- and post-intervention analysis was the improvement in women's knowledge of the incidence of stillbirth. Further to this, prior to reading the brochure most women were unaware of action they themselves could take to reduce risk such as awareness of fetal movements, whereas after reading the brochure this was more likely to be cited.

Conclusions: the results from this pilot study may indicate that a specifically designed information brochure explaining the incidence of stillbirth in plain language could enhance pregnant women's knowledge. This area of study warrants further investigation, especially as to whether such knowledge is of an enduring nature or whether awareness results in reduced incidence.