Maternal Counseling for Preterm Deliveries, Assessing an Effective Method of Counseling

Providing verbal counseling supplemented with both written and pictorial information then verbal counseling alone is a more effective method of counseling parents with threatened preterm delivery

Progress in the frontiers of neonatology has continually pushed back the limit of viability and significantly improved the survival of extremely preterm infants. An important component of medical management before a preterm delivery is counseling the parents about probabilities of survival and long term complications. Hypothesis: Preterm counseling is more effective when parents receive verbal counseling supplemented with written and pictorial information then verbal counseling alone. Methodology: There will be two groups of study (verbal, pictorial and written vs verbal alone). All patients admitted to the L and D department of Stroger hospital between 23 to 34 weeks of gestation with threatened premature delivery will be enrolled in the study. They will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. After counseling, parents will be asked to complete a 32 point questionnaire to check their knowledge of outcomes of prematurity. To reach statistically significant results, the investigators will need 40 patients in each group. The study will be done over a period of one year

Parents with threatened delivery will receive verbal counseling supplemented with pictorial and written information

verbal counseling in addition to gestational age specific written information and pictures will be given to parents

After counseling, patient will answer a 32 point questionnaire and this will be compared across the two groups to see there is any statistical difference between the two groups using SPSS

Pre and post counseling administration of 6 item State and Trait anxiety inventory, SPSS software will be used to compute statistical significance

Inclusion Criteria: Pregnant women between 23 to 34 weeks gestation assessed by obstetrician to need counseling Exclusion Criteria: Pregnancies with known life threatening defects considered as non compatible with life. Mothers previously admitted and counseled will also be excluded

Khashu M, Narayanan M, Bhargava S, Osiovich H. Perinatal outcomes associated with preterm birth at 33 to 36 weeks' gestation: a population-based cohort study. Pediatrics. 2009 Jan;123(1):109-13. doi: 10.1542/peds.2007-3743.

Govande VP, Brasel KJ, Das UG, Koop JI, Lagatta J, Basir MA. Prenatal counseling beyond the threshold of viability. J Perinatol. 2013 May;33(5):358-62. doi: 10.1038/jp.2012.129. Epub 2012 Oct 18.

Blanco F, Suresh G, Howard D, Soll RF. Ensuring accurate knowledge of prematurity outcomes for prenatal counseling. Pediatrics. 2005 Apr;115(4):e478-87. doi: 10.1542/peds.2004-1417.

Muthusamy AD, Leuthner S, Gaebler-Uhing C, Hoffmann RG, Li SH, Basir MA. Supplemental written information improves prenatal counseling: a randomized trial. Pediatrics. 2012 May;129(5):e1269-74. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-1702. Epub 2012 Apr 9.