Educational needs assessment for men's participation in perinatal care

ABSTRACT

To assess men's educational needs to improve their involvement in perinatal care we carried out a descriptive, cross-sectional study on 400 women seeking perinatal care in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences hospitals and 400 men who were accompanying them. Participants were recruited using a quota sampling method. A questionnaire was used to collect information on demography, men's educational needs and attitude assessment. The mean attitude score was 79.13% [SD 10.5%]. More than 95% of participants agreed with perinatal care education for men and the content most required was "Signs of risks during the perinatal period" and "Mothers' nutrition". The majority of participants preferred the face-to-face couples' counselling method, at home as the best place, evening and weekends as the best time and marriage classes as the best time for initiation. Men's education is necessary to promote male involvement in perinatal care