READINESS FOR LABOUR

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LESSONS LEARNED for FIRA 2008 Diversity,
Visibility, Community October 2008
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Todays parents

• Many pregnancies are unplanned.
• Some parents are mentally and emotionally
  unprepared to become parents.
• Increasingly Canadian couples are separating when
  their children are young.
• Many couples experience a
• Crash of expectations after the baby is born
• Substantial increase in conflicts and
  disagreements with the birth of their 1st baby.
• Depressive symptoms are high.

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The HALO

• The prenatal mindset
• The perfect baby
• Couple relationship will be enhanced
• The ideal family.

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We believe

• Parenting is a lifelong journey in which the
  first two years are particularly critical and set
  the stage for the future.
• Mothers and Fathers are equally important members
  of the parenting team.
• A healthy parental couple relationship enhances
  both child and family wellness.
• Parents learn best when able to connect with
  other parents in a similar stage of the parental
  journey.

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Parenting Initiative

• To develop and test
• The Parenting Partnership program
• For couples expecting their 1st baby
• Begins during pregnancy and lasts until babies
  1st birthday.
• Weekly on-line sessions, with 7 face-to-face
  sessions prenatally and monthly after birth.
• Led by 2 person teams of Health Educator
  Counsellor
• 3 modules
• Pregnancy to Birth
• Birth to 6 months
• 7 14 months

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The Curriculum

• BLENDED DELIVERY MODEL
• 65 weekly web sessions containing
• 700 articles and activities
• 350 related resources
• 7 prenatal and 14 post-natal face-to-face
  sessions
• Covers e.g., fetal and infant development,
  labour and delivery, health promotion, couple
  relationship, mental health, parenting and child
  development, etc.

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On-line sessions - Homepage
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Family Time
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Sharing Time
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Evaluation steps

• Development Testing are there early warning
  signals?
• Done!
• Process Evaluation have we created a program
  that
• parents and Parent Educators find beneficial and
  is
• delivered with fidelity across a range of sites?
• Pretest 1 and 2 concluded.
• Pretest 3 underway
• Impact Evaluation do program families benefit
  more
• than non-program families?
• Longitudinal Follow-up does the impact last?

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Our assumptions

• Content lots available appropriate for mothers
  and fathers
• Parent Educator teams 1 male 1 female
• Attendance fathers lt mothers
• Drop-outs fathers gt mothers

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CONTENT

• Almost all existing CONTENT was flawed
• too academic,
• paternalistic,
• un-engaging,
• old-fashioned,
• not evidence-based and/or
• not father-friendly.

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Steps to address

• Asked fathers what topics THEY needed to be and
  feel supported in their role
• Finances, RESPs
• Their role in labour and babys development
• Identified critical father adjustment issues and
  incorporated them into curriculum
• Fathers pre/postnatal moods
• Fathers stresses
• Father/Mother expectations re caregiving, HH
  chores finances employment daycare

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MALE PARENT EDUCATORS

• Too few in the professions
• Strategies to address re female/female PE teams
• Incorporate Dad/Dad and Mom/Mom breakout periods
  in some sessions
• A few Father Only sessions.
• Have same female PE facilitate every Dad/Dad
  session.

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DROP-OUTS

• Expected Dads to drop out after baby born.
• 1st session after baby was born Dads Only
• Dads bonded!
• Expected Dads to drop out, but Moms stay.
• Couples dropped out, not Dads only.
• Occurred with no warning.
• If missed 1st class, much higher probability of
  dropping out.

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ATTENDANCE

• Attendance no indication that Moms, more
• than Dads stick with the course.
• Dads only slightly less than Moms
• Dads 274 person sessions Moms 290
• 4 out of 5 top attenders were Dads.

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Dads only sessions

• Incredibly rewarding for the new dads
• A heartfelt need to share their stories with the
  other fathers, without their partners in the room.

The Fathers expressed a sense of being on the
sidelines to their partners babies. The Dads
sessions provides a forum to share their
feelings, some of which they may not want to
reveal to their partners.
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The results
Fathers love the program. They gained what we
hoped they would.
Knowledge
Connections
Confidence
Skills
The program took me though the whole arc of what
to expect. I felt prepared I was conscious of
what is possible. It helped me to deal with my
spouse and the changes we were going through.
Now Im part of a group of people that are not
afraid to share their experiences. The
instructors have so much credibility. You trust
them and their experience.
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Parent Educators
As we hoped, they have become big advocates of
the program.
Professional Fulfillment When I first signed up
to do this I had no idea what a wonderful
experience that this would be not just for the
parents but for myself as well.
Acclamation I wish this wonderful resource was
available to my husband and myself when we were
having our first baby!
Co-leadership After spending this year with my
co-leader I am pleased to say that we both found
the experience enriching. It afforded us
opportunity for expansion of our areas of
expertise through the sharing of information and
the support we provided each other.
Preparation The support and training provided
by Invest in Kids was an important part of the
success I have enjoyed as an educator.
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The Parenting Partnership
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Questions