Högskolan i Skövde

Background

In today's society, people are experiencing the rapid development of digitalisation. Expecting parents may have difficulties evaluating the information online; they are not always sure which sources of information are trustworthy, and this exacerbates their feelings of anxiety. More research is needed to broaden the knowledge about how their use of digital sources may influence their health.

Question

The focus of this study was to explore expecting parents’ use of digital sources and how this influences their health during pregnancy.

Methods

A systematic review covered the thematic analysis of 39 articles.

Findings

The analysis resulted in the following theme: The digitalised society involves both opportunities and challenges, and expecting parents express a need for a variety of digital sources to improve their health, and sub-themes: Digital sources could promote parents’ health and well-being in a digitalised society; Consuming digital health information facilitates understanding, different feelings and social connections; and A variety of digital sources may facilitate parental identification and adaption to parenthood.

Conclusion

Different digital sources in our digitalised society mean access to information and opportunities to extend social connections for expecting parents. This can promote their ability to understand and adapt to parenthood, as well as to improve their health and well-being and make the parental transition. However, professional support during face-to-face consultations cannot always be exchanged to digital sources. It is important to base digital sources devoted to expecting parents and digitalisation overall on multi-sectorial collaborations and coordination between different organisations and the digital sources they provide.

Social contextual circumstances have an influence on parental transition, and social support has been shown to facilitate the transition to parenthood, among other states. Further knowledge is, however, needed to explore how partners of pregnant women use their social networks during pregnancy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how partners of pregnant women use their social networks when preparing for childbirth and parenting. Within this study, a social network is defined as social connections such as family, friends and significant others. In total, 14 partners (expectant fathers and co-mothers) were interviewed. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. EQUATOR Network guidelines and the COREQ checklist were applied. The analysis resulted in one theme of meaning: Partners use their social networks to receive social support, which facilitates understanding about how to prepare for childbirth and parenthood, which was described through three sub-themes. The results highlight the importance of social networks for partners when preparing for childbirth and parenthood. Professionals should aim to strengthen and extend partners’ social networks and access to social support. This could be done not only to support partners to attend parental classes, but also to participate socially as well as engage with other expectant parents within the classes.

In midwifery education reflection and dialogue are important as a way to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical skills. When midwifery students train their skills in the delivery ward or antenatal care we wanted to examine their improved skills and knowledge in a new way, to see if we could facilitate their integration of theory and practice. Therefore we started oral examination with group discussions.

Aim of this study was to explore students’ experiences from oral examination with group discussions.

Method; students wrote answers to question about their experiences before, during and after oral examinations. Their written answers were analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Preliminary results; Students experiences before examination was being nervous or even terrified but the examination was described as challenging but interesting and fun. The student described that they became more aware of their actual knowledge. Overall the examination was described as improving their understanding of theory within practice.

Preliminary conclusion; Oral examination with group discussions could facilitate midwifery students’ integration of theory and practice and also increase their ability for critical reflection.