Antenatal Education Needs for Women with Female Genital Mutilation in the NHS



Antenatal Education Needs for Women with Female Genital Mutilation in the NHS

Introduction

First-time British mothers who participated in a community-based antenatal education program were more likely than non-participants to adopt behaviors beneficial to their infants' and their own health soon after delivery (Carroli, 2001). Women who attended the program had significantly elevated odds of beginning to breast-feed within two hours after giving birth and of taking their infant for a checkup within seven days. Contraceptive use in general was not associated with program participation, but the odds of using a method that required male involvement (i.e., condoms or withdrawal) three months after delivering were increased among participants (Carroli, 2001). This paper discusses antenatal education needs for women with female genital mutilation in the NHS in a concise way.

Discussion

The program, located in a community center in a lower-middle-class area of Istanbul, was designed for women who had had minimal if any sex and reproductive health education. Its eight two-hour sessions were led by a nurse, a facilitator and a trained member of the community; among the topics covered were health and nutrition during pregnancy, childbirth (including stages of labor and delivery, and interventions that might be needed in various circumstances), infant health and care, and postpartum health and contraception (Carroli, 2001). As part of a program evaluation, researchers conducted in-home interviews with program participants and with nonparticipants who had had their first child at the same hospitals, and compared the results using chi-square tests and logistic regression. All women were interviewed 2.5-3.0 months after they delivered.

The analyses included 100 program participants and 157 controls who completed interviews between October 1998 and March 2000. Overall, roughly 40-50% of the women were older than 24, had been married less than two years and were natives of Istanbul. Nearly two-thirds had had more than eight years of formal schooling, but only one-quarter had ever worked outside the home; three in 10 lived in the same apartment building as some of their relatives. Half were married to men younger than 30, and three-quarters had a husband with at least a middle school education. The majority of women had health insurance, saw a private-sector provider for antenatal care and had delivered in a private hospital (Fabian, et al, 2005).

Program participants and controls had generally similar background characteristics. However, higher proportions of participants than of controls were older than 24 (60% vs. 40%), had been born in Istanbul (62% vs. 41%) and had gone to school for more than eight years (75% vs. 57%); a lower proportion had relatives who lived in their building (20% vs. 34%).

Interview data revealed several differences between program participants' and controls' postpartum health-related behaviors. Women who had attended the antenatal program were more likely than nonparticipants to have begun breast-feeding within two hours after delivery, to currently be breast-feeding, to currently be feeding their infant only breast milk and to have taken the baby for a checkup within a week after delivery ...