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The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign (the Leicestershire experience)
1Department of Community Health, Leicester Royal Infirmary.
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.
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.