| Learning Objective #1: Discuss previous studies in the nursing literature that focused on prenatal education classes and postpartum outcomes | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss implications of the findings for nursing education, practice and research |
One health care change in the 21st century that has had a significant impact on postpartum mothers and their newborns is the shortened length of hospital stay following childbirth. Postpartum nurses realize that, with the shortened length of stay, less patient education can be accomplished in the hospital, therefore one solution that has been proposed is attendance at prenatal education classes, especially for primiparous women (Berger & Cook, 1998; Lukacs, 1991). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare postpartum adaptation to motherhood two weeks after vaginal childbirth in primiparous women who have attended prenatal education classes and those that have not attended prenatal education classes. The outcome variables being measured include perineal pain, confidence in coping with the tasks of motherhood, satisfaction with motherhood and infant care activities and quality of relationship with husband /partner. The Roy Adaptation Model (1984, 1991, 1999) will guide this inquiry. A convenience sample of primiparous women (N = 158) who give birth vaginally to healthy newborns will be recruited for this descriptive-comparative post-test only design. Women (n = 52) who attend Prepared Childbirth and Baby Care Basics Classes, women (n = 53) who only attend Prepared Childbirth Class and women (n = 53) who do not attend any Prenatal Education Classes will respond to the Postpartum Self-Evaluation Questionnaire (Lederman, Weingarten, & Lederman, 1981), the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (Melzack, 1984) and a Mother Information Form at two –weeks postpartum. Data are being analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The five hypotheses are being tested through the use of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Student's t test, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and the Mann-Whitney test. The level of significance is set at p < .05.