Text messaging works wonders in convincing teenage mums-to-be to attend antenatal classes, writes EITHNE DONNELLAN
ATTENDANCE BY teenagers at antenatal classes in the maternity unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has increased by 90 per cent, thanks to the use of text messaging and other innovative strategies by a staff midwife.
Una O’Brien noticed when she was put in charge of all antenatal education in the unit in February 2007 that many young girls, who delivered in the hospital, were not attending for classes.
She decided to examine the programme that was in place including the length of the antenatal classes, the letters of invitation sent to the girls, to speak to expectant teenage girls about what they wanted, including whether or not they would like to watch a birth video, and she also looked at strategies adopted by antenatal tutors in the UK.
She came up with “a colourful letter” of invitation to the classes written in a casual tone, and she followed up each letter with a text message to girls who had booked in to have their babies at the hospital.
She also decided to have healthy lunch treats for those who did attend as well as a little gift such as a mobile phone charm for each participant. And she ensured their favourite music was playing as they arrived at the classes.
Realising early on that it was important to communicate with the teenagers in their own language, she got one of the girls attending to devise a text message which could be circulated to all teens booking in at the maternity hospital. It goes something like this: “Hi der dis is d prt crft dpt in d Lrds mat, wer havin ur Antenatl Class nxt sat @ 10 til 3 incl lnch n a gft 4,2! Brng a frnd ur mam ur prtnr r cum on ur own!!! Txt bk asap n let me no if ya cn cum plz Ta 4 nw Una Midwife”.
The result has been a significant increase in the numbers of teens attending. While just 44 of more than 200 girls under 21 years of age who gave birth in the hospital in 2007 attended antenatal classes, this increased to 84 in 2008 and to 101 in 2009.
Girls can now also text her for advice on breastfeeding or other issues like school bullying, which can happen during pregnancy.
“The phone is in my pocket all the time. They text me all the time. Yesterday a girl texted to see if she could tour the maternity unit and bring her mum and dad, and I said ‘no problem’.”
At first the antenatal classes were on a Saturday but now the girls are offered two classes over two Thursday evenings after school, which works better.
And if girls are nervous about attending a group session, one-to-one classes are also available. They can sit on a beanbag and discuss everything, and O’Brien doesn’t even wear her uniform in case it’s a bit intimidating.
She is delighted with the success of the initiative, but realises there is still work to be done and now hopes to get on Facebook or Twitter or to set up a blog to reach out to even more young girls and encourage them to attend for antenatal care.
“The huge advantage in getting them to come to these classes is preparing them for the birth. If the girls come into the labour ward and they haven’t done their antenatal classes, the midwives will say they are so scared and they don’t know if they are in labour,” she says.
“They don’t know how to do the breathing and they all want to go for the epidural – it’s not always the right way to go, whereas when they come and they get educated they are much more relaxed coming in.”
Already a number of other maternity hospitals and maternity units have expressed an interest in O’Brien’s work, which yesterday won her a national Crystal Clear MSD Health Literacy Award.
She was also recently appointed the first clinical midwife specialist in teenage pregnancy in the State and hopes the opportunity will allow her improve services further for this vulnerable age group.
She wants to set up a system which will ensure she is the first point of contact for all teenagers booking into the hospital to have their babies, a system which ensures they see a social worker and get any help they need from the teenage parenting support network.
“I have a lot of things that I want to accomplish,” she admits.
There is still a big demand for her service, she says, despite the fall-off in teenage birth rates in Ireland in recent years. According to CSO figures, there were 3,087 births to women under 20 in 2001 and that had dropped to 2,426 in 2008.
“There is a huge demand . . . I had about 219 under-21s in 2007, more than 100 of whom were teenagers,” she adds.
