Usefulness of antenatal care handbook: a cross-sectional study of mothers' perspectives
Accepted: 14 November 2023
HTML: 11
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
In 2016, the Ministry of Health Brunei Darussalam introduced the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Handbook, replacing the card-type record. Despite its implementation, the handbook's utility remains unexamined. This study aims to evaluate the community's usage of the MCH handbook and explore the connections between age, education, and handbook utilization. A cross-sectional study employed an online self-administered survey among pregnant women attending routine antenatal checkups at 32 weeks gestation between December 2020 and January 2021. The survey used the MCH Usefulness Questionnaire, and subgroup analysis was conducted. The study included 73 mothers. Most participants reported having sufficient time to read the handbook (95.9%), being familiar with its content (89.0%), and feeling satisfied with its usage (93.2%). Reasons for not using the handbook included "online availability of the same information" (20.5%), difficulty in understanding certain words (17.8%), preference for more visual content (12.3%), and inadequate encouragement from healthcare providers (12.3%). The majority of mothers perceive the handbook as useful. Nonetheless, further investigation is necessary to delve into their perceptions and ensure the handbook's sustained relevance and effectiveness over time.
How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.