Usefulness of Antenatal Care Handbook: A Cross-Sectional Study of Mother’s Perspective

Abstract

Introduction: The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Handbook was introduced by the Ministry of Health Brunei Darussalam in 2016 to replace a card-type record. Since its introduction, its usefulness has not been evaluated. The purpose of the study was to determine the usefulness of the MCH Handbook contents in delivering information on antenatal care to Bruneian women. Methods: A cross-sectional study using an online survey to women who came for their routine antenatal checkup at 32-week gestation. Results: 73 mothers returned the self-administered online questionnaires. Participants had time to read the handbook (95.9%), were familiar with content (89.0%), and satisfied with the usage (93.2%). Major reasons for not using the handbook included “same information available online” (20.5%), “some words difficult to understand” (17.8%), “like more pictures than words” (12.3%), and “less encouragement from healthcare workers” (12.3%).Conclusions: Majority of mothers find the handbook useful. However, further study is required to explore mother’s perception on the utilization of the handbook to continue improving the content and ensure relevance of its usage over time.