Introduction: Experience of child birth is always linked with the emotional feelings and expectations. Inappropriate mental and physical preparation of the pregnant woman regarding the birthing process can leave her in a state of anxiety, dilemma and fear of the unknown.
Objectives: The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of video assisted child birth education programme on knowledge, intra-partum behaviour, maternal and foetal outcome among primigravida mothers and associate the findings with demographic variables.
Material and methods: In order to achieve the desired objectives of the study quantitative research approach with quasi experimental non equivalent pretest, posttest control group design was adopted for the present study. Using non-probability purposive sampling 350 primigravida women who completed 32 weeks of gestation were enrolled for the study and distributed in two groups (175 each in control and experimental group). Data collection was accomplished by using tool comprised of structured knowledge questionnaire regarding labour process and childbirth preparedness, intrapartum behavioural observation checklist (IPBOC), record analysis proforma for maternal and foetal outcome. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: Almost half the population in both the group had not heard about childbirth education before i.e. 51.4% and 50.9% in experimental and control group respectively. Initially (in pretest) the experimental and control group didn’t differ in terms of their knowledge level. (‘t’(348)=0.4, p>0.05). The Video Assisted Child Birth Education Program significantly improved the knowledge of the primigravida mothers regarding labor process and child birth preparedness in all the areas except for breast feeding in experimental group. The average change (7.3) in knowledge score in experimental group was significantly higher than the average change (0.4) in control group (t (348) =111.6, p<0.05). The compliance to the intra-partum behavior was much higher among experimental group mothers than the control group (z (348)=12.7,p<0.05). The proportion of primigravida mothers in experimental group had significantly less maternal complications as compared to that of control group. [‘z’(348)=2.95, p<0.05]. The proportion of newborns cried immediately after birth in experimental is significantly more as compared to that of control group. [‘z’(df348)=6.6, p<0.05]. Age, education, occupation, monthly family income and previous information regarding birth preparedness information were found to have significant association with knowledge of primigravida mothers.
Conclusion: Video Assisted Child Birth Education Programme was found to be effective in significantly improving the knowledge regarding labour and childbirth, intra partum behaviour among primigravida mothers at the time of reporting to the labour room for delivery and in all the four stages of labour thus improving the labour outcome.
