A literature review on childbirth education

Abstract

Childbirth education falls under the concept of health literacy. It is also referred to as prenatal, antenatal or perinatal education and aims at preparing women and their partners for childbearing and childrearing. Before westernisation and industrialisation women acquired knowledge on these issues by means of informal information sharing between female community members, but due to the breakdown of the “women’s network”, more formal methods of information sharing developed. This article will focus on the history of and the current trends in antenatal education and will attempt to find evidence to illustrate the aims and importance as well as the limitations of this subject. Childbirth education in the South African context will also be discussed.