The "Happy-Mums" website dedicated to the perinatal period: Evaluation of its acceptability by parents and professionals

Abstract

Objective: Pregnancy and childbirth are associated with new needs for mothers, especially an eagerness for information. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the Happy-Mums.be website meets the expectations and needs of its future users.

Design: After the development of the Happy-Mums.be website, it was submitted to parents and professionals and evaluated by an online survey, which consisted of the third round of an ongoing Delphi survey.

Setting and participants: The panel involved in the survey included parents (both mothers and fathers) and professionals (health professionals and early childhood professionals, orbiting mothers of children aged 0-2 years).

Findings: Twenty-eight parents and professionals participated in the third round of the Delphi survey. The participants indicated that Happy-Mums.be was useful and easy to use. They attributed a mean score of 8 out of 10 for the content, design and quality of the information on the Happy-Mums.be website. The majority of participants said that they would recommend the website both during pregnancy and the postnatal period.

Conclusions: Happy-Mums.be meets the needs and expectations of parents and professionals in terms of both content and design. More specifically, the quality of the information found on Happy-Mums.be was judged to be significantly better than the information found on other websites.

Keywords: Delphi survey; Happy-Mums.be; Mothers’ needs; Website development.