The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign (the Leicestershire experience)

Leicestershire was one of the 10 districts selected for inclusion in the Asian Mother and Baby Campaign, a campaign undertaken to help overcome the problems experienced by Asian women during pregnancy. To achieve this aim eight linkworkers were allocated to this district for a two year period. A local evaluation was undertaken using general practices with evidence of a higher than average perinatal risk. Linkworkers were distributed equally between the hospital and community setting. Women from the selected practices were interviewed at three points; booking for ante-natal care, following delivery and at the post-natal visit. It was found that the linkworkers provided a much needed interpreter service but were less successful in imparting health education knowledge to Asian women. In fact improvement in health education knowledge only occurred in women with a good understanding of English. A surprising finding was that there is still a very large proportion (approximately 50%) of Asian women in Leicestershire who are unable to communicate in English and are not therefore able to make full use of the available services.