[Antenatal education and recognition of the onset of labour]

In recent years, there has been a progressive increase in the number of emergencies with a preterm labour diagnosis at the Virgen del Camino Hospital. In 1996 the anaesthesia service was introduced in the labour ward. Taking into account that no other factors have changed in this service, it is believed that its introduction might have contributed to the increase of preterm labour emergencies, as well as to a decrease in the number of pregnant women who attend antenatal classes. The aims of the present study are: to check whether there are any differences with respect to attendance of the antenatal classes and the number of pregnant women who come to the hospital in preterm labour or not, and to determine the reasons why pregnant women do not attend these courses.

A case control retrospective study. The cases were women at the term of their pregnancy who were attended at the Virgen del Camino Hospital in 1998. The sample was obtained by simple random sampling, using the registries of emergencies and the labour ward. The size of the sample was 150 cases and 150 controls, who were interviewed by telephone in order to complete the data collection questionnaire. Chi square was applied for the comparison of proportions and Student's t test for the comparison of means.

It was found that pregnant women with preterm labour were less likely to attend to antenatal classes (p=0.02; OR=0.56;CI 0.33-0.96). Attendance of antenatal classes had a positive effect for the recognition of a suitable time for coming to the hospital because of the onset of delivery, with a reduction in preterm labour emergencies, and a reduction in the corresponding workload.