Preparation for parenthood programme: Experiences from southern India

Abstract

Parenting skills are critically important to ensure that children are brought up in a safe environment. Recent evidence shows that studies of parenting skills are still at a preliminary stage in low- and middle-income countries. These need to involve family practitioners and religious groups who often play a major role in preparing young people in India. There are organized programmes available in the country for Christian adults to prepare themselves for marriage and family life through various church initiatives and activities. In order to develop a programme which can be used to prepare young parents for responsibilities of parenthood, a needs assessment was carried out among 70 young adults who attended a marriage preparation course in Bangalore, India. All the participants belonged to the Christian faith. Participants consisted of 53% men and 47% women whose average age for deciding to get married was 26.8 years. All of them expressed a need for such a preparatory programme for parenthood. They considered they needed to know about normal child development, behavioural management of children, to develop adequate skills in handling children at different ages, and deal with their own past issues with their own parents when they were being parented. The results suggest that the development of a preparatory programme for young adults to support them in the role of parenthood must take their views and needs into account.

Preparation for Motherhood during Pregnancy: a Concept Analysis

“…(15,31) In spite of this situation, women in the study by Ho and Holroyd (8) considered that the prenatal period is the ideal to get prepare on matters related to maternity. McVeigh (30) proposes that anticipated preparation for maternity is required in its own social environment and that society needs to actively prepare its youth for one of the most demanding social roles, as shown by Thomas and Bhugra (32) who identified that young people recognized a need to have programs for preparation for maternity to learn to solve problems on this issue before assuming their role as parents.…”

“…(32) Additionally, through the availability of financial resources that favor the acquisition of care giving elements and the adaptation of spaces (9) and the preparation for labor and delivery. (22) In other conceptual developments, preparation for maternity has other legal, spiritual, and historical dimensions; (9) but is placed within a context reduced to the presence of a relationship between a man and a woman, with a planned pregnancy and extended to the child's first year of life.…”