Becoming a parent is an intense and tranformative period, with a unique mix of stress and rewards, but also opportunities to positively influence behaviours and outco. It is accepted that current models of antenatal education need to be reviewed (Artieta-Pinedo et al 2017) as they fail to respond to real needs of parents (Svensson et al 2008; O’Sullivan et al, 2014) and retain unequal learning opportunities (Rowe & Garcia 2003). New technologies provide opportunities for broader reach and new approaches in learning. While there is no lack of digital sources of information, these are of varied quality (O'Donnell et al, 2016) and only few have been developed using rigorous methods (Hearn et al 2014). The project will bring BabyBuddy (TM), an innovative and award-winning UK-based tool developed by Best Beginnings (UK), further. BabyBuddy - Further will be significantly enhanced (multilingual) and expanded (with cross-culturally relevant and socio-culturally specific material) in order to inform, teach, motivate and empower while targeting priorities and issues of concern in highly medicalised settings (e.g. cesarean sections) and tailoring content to expectations of a culturally diverse set parents-to-be/new parents. The project will (a) engage in priority-setting and consensus-building among health professionals and assess the cross-national transferability of a wealth of material (IO1) developed within a national context (UK) to lower-resource settings with a different delivery system (Cyprus and Greece), (b) perform a cross-national study (IO2) to gain an in-death understanding of expectations, norms, barriers and disparities encountered in multi-cultural settings, with divisions along socioeconomic, ethnic, language and cultural lines (Cyprus and Germany), (c) co-create with parents-to-be/new parents new cross-culturally relevant and/or culturally-specific video material (IO3) featuring real people in real settings to enhance the content, learning space, process and salience of the message, (d) develop an Open Educational platform (IO4) with material in five languages to reflect a diverse and changing demographic composition (Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, English) and (e) develop policy recommendations on system change measures which include embedding such resources in clinical and community practice (IO5). The open-access learning tool directly targets expectant and new parents and acts as a day-to-day companion with evidence-based information and video material. It aims at building health literacy around childbirth with wider reach to drive a "bottom-up" change in participating countries and beyond. The target audience will be reached via dissemination activities and a series of workshops. The impact in terms of reach will be evaluated using a web analytics survey of uptake and the socio-demographic profile of users. The resource will also benefit practicing and future health professionals in their role as educators, reached via a multiplier event and dissemination via active European networks on childbirth. The consortium represents a cross-national and multi-sectoral partnership of organizations, all with a special interest in maternal and child health, either as educators/researchers from three academic institutions to lead the theoretical and analytical activities - Cyprus (Cyprus University of Technology), Greece (Athens Higher Technological Institute), Germany (Protestant University of Berlin) and NGOs/SME at different level of current capacity - Best Beginnings (UK), an established charity with a track-record in delivering technological tools for supporting parents-to-be and new parents, Birth Forward (CY), a young dynamic and multicultural advocate of childbirth and Cosmoanelixis (GR), an SME with an entrepreneurship record in lifelong learning for parents. The strategic partnership allows further development and internationalization of an innovative approach and tool. The project delivers an online learning environment which facilitates the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competences, and support for expectant and new parents in line with adult learning, while addressing social and cultural segregation in learning opportunities. The innovation extents beyond high-quality learning content to the learning space, context and implicit learning. The learning space is extended from a medical setting or birth preparation classroom to a familiar and socially-inclusive context provided when it is actually needed. The learner has access to material in their own language and/or videos of peers in culturally-familiar settings which further increases the emotional connection and relevance. Through the mutual reinforcement of research-innovation-advocacy, the consortium delivers a large-scale project which aims to influence current practices and policy. The project functions as a “proof of concept” for developing an alternative or complementary model of “perinatal education for all”.
The transition to parenthood presents opportunities to promote mother-child health. Though of varying quality, internet information-seeking is prevalent while attendance in antenatal classes is low. Digital innovation can support access to timely and valid information for all, a key component of WHO’s Respectful Maternity Care. The project formed a strategic partnership with the aim of developing a "proof of concept" for cross-national research-informed digital innovation exchange. The project brought Baby Buddy, an innovative and award-winning UK-based app developed by partner Best Beginnings, Forward, as Baby Buddy Cyprus is significantly enhanced (multilingual) and expanded (with socio-culturally relevant material), achieved through a structured iterative research process, developed specifically for this purpose. Within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework, formative qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to engage with the professional and parent community in order to deliver a locally relevant resource for future parents and a valuable tool for assisting healthcare providers in their educational role. The project: (a) engaged in priority-setting and consensus-building among health professionals and parents-to-be/new parents to shape the content of Baby Buddy. The process assessed the cross-national relevance and suitability of the material (IO1) from the original Baby Buddy to the medicalized and decentralized healthcare system in Cyprus and Greece, resulting in adopting 104 original videos, as well as around 65 000 words of written content, covering a range of topics, chosen through a Delphi process involving 193 health professionals and 275 parents. (b) performed a series of focus groups with a diverse set of 95 new mums and mums-to-be in Cyprus, Greece and Germany (IO2) to gain an in-death understanding of their information-seeking behaviour in the context of health literacy skills and participation in decision-making. This process clearly highlighted that “traditional” antenatal education arrangements are not effective in addressing the women's needs and a shift is needed from current practices of unguided information-searching. (c) co-created with local parents-to-be/new parents and health professionals 112 new short videos (IO3) based on principles of effective health communication (Baby Buddy Forward YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClizlqJ5Fc5iGbe54l-c7fw ) (d) developed the multilingual (Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, English) webapp platform (IO4) http://babybuddy.com.cy and http://babybuddy.com.el with over 1800 users by the end of the project timeline and a growth rate of around 150-200 new registrations per month. (e) proposed a system-change intervention ,designed based on behavioural change theory to inform the policy recommendations of effectively embedding Baby Buddy in clinical and community practice (IO5). Baby Buddy acts as a day-to-day companion offering evidence-based information and emotional support. It aims at building health literacy around childbirth with wider reach to drive a "bottom-up" change in participating countries and beyond. The target audiences were reached via a range of dissemination activities and a series of workshops. Initial analysis of current users' socio-demographic profile and web analytics reveal that the project had a large impact in terms of uptake and reach in only a short period of time. The resource will continue to benefit future parents as well as health professionals in their role as educators, reached via the professional associations who participated in the co-creation process. The consortium represented a multi-sectoral partnership of organizations, all with a special interest in maternal and child health, from three academic institutions in Cyprus (Cyprus University of Technology), Greece (University of West Attica) and Germany (Evangelische Hochschule Berlin) and NGOs/SME at different level of capacity - Best Beginnings (UK), with a track-record of digital tools for supporting new parents, Birth Forward (CY), a young dynamic and multicultural advocate of childbirth and Cosmoanelixis (GR), with an entrepreneurship record in lifelong learning. This partnership allowed further development and internationalization of an innovative approach and tool to deliver an online learning environment which facilitates the acquisition of knowledge, skills, competences and support for parents in line with adult learning. The learning space is extended from a medical setting or birth preparation class to a familiar and socially-inclusive context provided when it is actually needed. As a trusted source of information, Baby Buddy can significantly impact current practices through enhancing the user-provider communication and promoting shared decision-making. The project is a “proof of concept” for a complementary model of “antenatal education for all” as well as a methodology for further internationalization.