From the Classroom to the Living Room: Web Based Childbirth Education that Works

The traditional classroom based childbirth education seems to serve families well, however, some families complain that classes are offered at inconvenient times, or the time committment is too great (5 weeks of class for 2 1/2 hours) or the physical surroundings of the classroom are uncomfortable.  The literature clearly states that both patients and providers place a high value on patient education (Deardorff, 1986).  To date, comprehensive computer based childbirth education does not seem to exist either in the literature or in the real world.  There is documented success using computer based education in a few areas of healthcare including diabetes education (Lo, Lo, Wells, Chard & Halthaway, 1996) and a computer based teaching intervention for pregnant women who smoke (Rice, Fotouhi, Burn, Hoyer & Ayers, 1997).  Deardorff (1986) studied the effect of delivery method on retention of health information and found computer based information presentation was just as effective as written information based on test scores of recall.

Our objective in developing web based childbirth education was to make the information accessible and convenient for participants.  The information would be presented in an interactive manner - an educational / learning managment system, where in participants could check their progress.

Participants register online, are assigned a user ID and password.  They also choose to attend an in-person class at one of our hospitals. This class allows for questions and an overview of the relaxation and breathing techniques.