Women planning and experiencing pregnancy and childbirth: information needs and sources

This paper reports the preliminary findings of a study of women planning a pregnancy and perinatal women with respect to their information needs and the sources of information they use. Fifty women, 7 planning a pregnancy, 30 pregnant and 13 postnatal, completed a questionnaire including questions about who they had approached for information about pregnancy issues, who had given them advice and why it was or was not useful, what they would currently like to know, and what they wished they had known during the previous three months. Results highlighted differences in the type of information provided by various sources: doctors and specialists were seen as primarily providing factual information; midwives also supplied information but more importantly gave reassurance and support; partners did not provide information but were valued for their support in a shared experience; and mothers and friends were primarily useful due to their own experiences. The findings also suggested the importance of information that is relevant to the women's current stage of pregnancy.