Midwives are a crucial health provider in the area of raising awareness and providing preventive education and information to women regarding alcohol use in pregnancy.
Research indicates that health professionals, including midwives, are not always confident in using screening tools and providing brief interventions in the clinical setting.
For more information on this project, please contact Tracy Reibel
Download a PDF summary of the project...
What was this research about?
This project was designed to improve the capacity of midwives working in antenatal settings to use the pregnancy specific Audit-C alcohol risk screening tool (assessing risk of harm from alcohol use) with pregnant women, and provide guidance (a brief intervention) to them about the effects of alcohol use on the developing baby. Additionally, readily available resources were identified for midwives to provide them with a range of educational resources to provide to women.
The main project outcome was a Learning Package for midwives outlining the rationale for conducting Audit-C screening in pregnancy, the key elements involved in conducting a brief educational intervention and a comprehensive list of relevant professional educational resources.
Even when relatively low risk alcohol use is identified in pregnancy, the Audit-C screening tool provides an opportunity to educate all pregnant women about the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines regarding the use of alcohol in pregnancy. The advice is "No alcohol in pregnancy is the safest option" and has been in place since 2009.
Involving consumers and the community
The Expert Group formed for the project included a Consumer Representative.
Additionally, women in the community participated in group discussions and individual interviews and were asked about:
- their experience of being asked about alcohol use
- acceptability and use of Audit C
- social practices associated with alcohol use or avoidance in pregnancy
How will this research help?
This project has produced and evaluated a learning package for midwives which will contribute to their professional knowledge of alcohol in pregnancy and the role that midwives play in educating women on this important health topic.
What are we doing next?
A state wide implementation strategy to distribute the learning package to all public health maternity services is being developed in consultation with the WA Department of Health.
Background
In a previous project midwives asked for professional development about alcohol consumption during pregnancy, FASD, and conducting brief interventions.
Who conducted this research?
Researchers:
- Dr Tracy Reibel1
- Dr Roslyn Giglia1
- Professor Carol Bower1
1 Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia
We worked closely with Armadale Health Service as the pilot site for the intervention.
This project is part of the 3M FASD Prevention Strategy: Marulu, Mass Media and Midwives.