Parents’ evaluation of early home visit by midwife

Abstract

Abstract Background The Norwegian guidelines for postnatal care strongly recommend that families are offered home visit by a midwife within the first week after early discharge from maternity clinic, in addition to home visit by health visitor 7-10 days after delivery. Due to lack of midwifery resources out of hospital, Bergen municipality has started a project where selected groups such as first time mothers, minority families and women who during pregnancy are defined as being in need of extra follow up, receive a home visit by their antenatal midwives. The main purpose of the study is to explore user satisfaction with the home visit by the midwife, and the parents’ experience of security and coping the first week after the delivery. Methods The design is a mixed method design including a clinical controlled trial. In addition to questions about the home visit, Parents’ Postnatal Sense of Security is used to measure safety, and by The Orientation to Life Questionnaire, coping as a Sense of Coherence is measured. The trial includes an intervention group who receive home visit by midwife, and a control group who met the inclusion criteria, but of different reasons do not receive home visit by midwife. The data collection started in November 2018 and is in progress. Results Preliminary results shows that the families consider home visit by midwife as useful, and as a good support the first week after delivery. Results from comparing the two groups regarding Sense of Security and Sense of Coherence will be presented. Conclusions Implications for better postpartum care will be presented. Key messages Investigate parents’ satisfaction with postpartum care at home, and ‘sense of security’ and ‘coping as a sense of coherence’. Contribute with suggestions for how to improve the postnatal care in a health promoting perspective.