B. Watts et al., MODIFYING A CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR 2 SPECIFIC POPULATIONS - INNER-CITY ADOLESCENTS AND SUBSTANCE-USING WOMEN, Journal of nurse-midwifery, 39(5), 1994, pp. 312-320
An interdisciplinary care provider team conducted a nonexperimental, o
bservational, descriptive study to determine a childbirth education cu
rriculum that would meet the needs of pregnant adolescent and substanc
e-using women who attend prenatal clinics at an urban, municipal hospi
tal center. A childbirth education curriculum, originally taught to a
clinic population in 1974, was used with the two special populations i
n 1993 for a 7-month period. Participants were encouraged to provide f
eedback about the curriculum for each class by offering suggestions fo
r additions or deletions of content. Provider staff also evaluated the
content for applicability today. At the end of the study period, the
pregnant adolescent group had been most involved with the class exerci
ses; members of the group provided feedback about content. They were c
onsistently positive in evaluating the entire six-class curriculum and
recommended some additional topics. The adolescents demonstrated sust
ained interest in breast-feeding. The substance-using women, on the ot
her hand, expressed a preference for content that focused on labor and
birth; they preferred to ask questions, individually and in the priva
cy of the examining room, and showed negligible interest in breast-fee
ding.