Engaging Millennials in Social Media: The Next Step for Childbirth Education

Who is the person attending childbirth education classes now?  

Gen X and Gen Y - the two most tech savvy generations, who also use social media and online learning to expand their knowledge base.  They are no strangers to social media and are now being called Digital Natives, due to them growing up with smart phones and tablets like many of us grew up with teddy bears and bicycles.

Unless guided to evidence based websites and blogs, even the most knowledgeable expectant Gen X or Y will still have a solid element of fear.  Hard to believe, studies are showing that women are not exposed to normal, uncomplicated vaginal births in the media (Morris & McInerney, 2010).  These same women may be unaware of childbirth education philosophies and practices that support low/no intervention births or physiologic births. This along with the rising cesarean rate, elective induction rate and high epidural rate, this makes for an evidence-based information dissemination nightmare.

According to Dr. Julia Kish-Doto, women of childbearing age rely heavily on social networks for health including childbirth knowledge.  By using social media to expose Gen X/Y to physiologic birth concepts, we may increase awareness of physiologic birth and decrease the fear factor.

It is also important to point out that women and especially mothers are the major influencers on their family units in regards to medical care.  If they do, in fact, rely on social media for information about pregnancy, birth, infant feeding and other medical issues, as childbirth professionals, this has become a mandate for us to assimilate social media into our education/teaching strategies.

Childbirth education using social media has a major advantage to the typical childbirth education classes: information can be accessed at ANY time day or night.  Information regarding newborns, breastfeeding and postpartum issues are available at 2 a.m. as well as 2 p.m.  To do this, we must have a robust and consistent voice on places such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  And while consistency is primary, having a tag line or recognizable logo or phrases also helps to catch the eye and draw the reader into the message.

Additionally, our message must contain something that millennials want to share.  They share often, and are 3 times more likely to share content they see on social networks and 2.3 times more likely to click back on content shared by peers.  They will cross-share over the various ecosystems (such as Facebook or Instagram) – which will take the message further!

75% of millennials want news

62% are interested in food

50% of millennials rely on video sharing websites

59% said their favorite websites are visually appealing, including infographics

57% said the best websites have content that is brief, well-written and easy to understand

We have a unique opportunity to wage a dynamic and comprehensive information campaign that can change the way our society looks at childbirth.  May is coming up and contains Mother's Day (May 12) and International Week for Respecting Childbirth (May 20-27).

What if, for one week, we all joined together in one gigantic media campaign to set right the information about childbirth, physiologic birth, evidence based information?

References:

Kish-Doto, J. RUprego? The Role of Social Media to Educate Young Women about Low Intervention Childbirth.  Cases In Public Health, Communication & Marketing.Vol IV, Summer 2010.

Morris, T. and Mclnerney, K. Media representations of pregnancy and childbirth: an analysis of reality television programs in the US.  Birth 2010; 37(2): 134-40.

How do Brands Effectively Reach Millennials on Twitter? By Greg Vodicka March 2014

http://www.millennialmarketing.com/2014/03/how-do-brands-effectively-reach-millennials-on-twitter/

Updating Childbirth Education

A retrospective examination of childbearing trends shows that the natural childbirth movement of the 60’s and 70’s was successful due to the major contribution of education. 

But what has happened? Let’s take a look at the facts: 

 2012 vs 1970s 

Epidural rates are higher. 

Cesarean section rates are higher. 

“Natural” or physiologic birth rates are lower. 

Attendance at childbirth education classes is lower. 

Attendance at childbirth education classes, in some communities, is discouraged. 

US maternal/infant morbidity/mortality rates are some of the worst in the world. 

 A policy brief from The Center for Family Policy and Research of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri (Columbia) states that there are six major benefits of childbirth education classes: 

• Enhances of woman’s confidence in her innate ability to give birth. 
• Fosters positive feelings toward the birth, caregivers and the infant. 
• Decreases the use of drugs during labor – including costly epidurals. 
• Offers an opportunity for social support during pregnancy – leading to reduced lengths of labor and obstetrical complications. 
• Facilitates positive birth outcomes, including reduction of cesarean births. 
• Sets the stage for successful initiation of breastfeeding and adjustment to new parenthood. 

While little recent research exists, studies by Lederman in the 1970s (Lederman RP, Lederman E, Work BA et al: The relationship of maternal anxiety, plasma catecholamines, and plasma cortisol to progress in labor. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 132: 495, 1978) demonstrated a relationship between anxiety, maternal attitudes, plasma catecholamines, uterine contractility, length of labor and Apgar scores. Anxiety leads to an increased production of plasma epinephrine, which inhibits uterine contractility and increases length of labor. Anxiety and stress reduction are integral parts of most childbirth education class curriculum which may also include education about the anatomy and physiology of labor/birth, a myriad of comfort measures, and the importance of physical/emotional support during labor. 

What is “wrong” with childbirth education that so many benefits are not recognized by the public? Insight into this problem came from the De Vries article in 2007 (De Vries, C. & De Vries R. Childbirth Education in the 21st Century: An Immodest Proposal. Journal of Perinatal Education 2007 Fall; 16(4): 38-48.). Disconnects in childbirth education included a mismatch between what childbirth educators offered and what expectant parents wanted, cultural bias in education, and loss of community based childbirth classes (co-optation to hospital classes). If an educator is teaching the same way as in the 1970’s, then parents of today will not find their learning style with that educator. 

Educators in 2012 and beyond should examine the power of websites in education (not just pieces of static advertising), Facebook in disseminating research studies, and Twitter for sharing small but powerful bits of information. More educators should be partnering together to develop Apps for smartphones and tablets plus podcasts that can be downloaded and listened to when there is time in the busy expectant parents’ day. While some parents may be able to continue with the classroom style of education, I fear we are losing more parents by not embracing the technology at hand and trying to fit these “round” parents into our comfortable, square pegged classes.