title: A survey of antenatal advice and education by the Sedgemoor Health Visitor Team.
abstract: The Healthy Child Programme includes an antenatal contact with the health visitor between 28 and 36 weeks gestation. In South Sedgemoor, health visitors had previously run an antenatal parenting session as part of the parentcraft education provided by the midwives. This had stopped due to a number of reasons. The decision was made to survey expectant parents to determine their views on how best this antenatal contact with the health visitor could be achieved. Sixty-six questionnaires were handed out and 73% responded. It was evident from the findings that the vast majority of parents questioned (82%) wanted individual face-to-face to contact with health visitors and midwives, with only 27% wanting to attend a small group. There was a clear request that this contact was to be done in the surgery (59%), although 36% felt that home or the children's centre would be an appropriate place. The parents mostly felt that the best time for this to happen would be during the day (48%) or at the weekend (30%). This small survey shows how important it is for individual health visiting teams to identify the antenatal needs of their clients in each locality and to listen to what they want.
authors.affiliation: Health Visitor, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Davidson
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016487:Parenting; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D057240:Patient Preference; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom