Original Research
The “Women with Diabetes” resource educates and empowers women to plan for pregnancy.
“Even if a baby is the last thing on your mind, there are things you need to know”
Developed by Queen’s University Belfast, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, the “Women with Diabetes” preconception counselling resource aims to increase women’s awareness about the importance of planning for pregnancy and to positively influence attitudes, self-confidence, and intentions towards seeking pre-pregnancy care and preventing unplanned pregnancies. This website originates from a DVD, funded by Diabetes UK, which was designed and developed in collaboration with women with diabetes who share their own experiences of planning for pregnancy and their knowledge of issues such as contraception and the reasons why it is so important to plan. An evaluation of the DVD among 97 women with diabetes demonstrated that it was effective in increasing knowledge and enhancing attitutes of women towards pre-pregnancy care. Subsequently, the DVD resource was embedded into routine care in Northern Ireland in 2010.
Implementation of this preconception counselling DVD into routine care was associated with improvements in pregnancy planning indicators, particularly among those women who watched the DVD prior to pregnancy. Women who watched the DVD were significantly more likely to have planned pregnnacy and to have taken folic acid preconception. These findings highlight the benefits of focusing on preconception counselling for all women with diabetes as one strategy to improve outcomes for pregnancy women with diabetes.
Developing on this, the Women with Diabetes website aims to maximise the impact of this resource to raise awareness of the importance of planning for pregnancy among women with diabetes and among the health care professionals caring for them.
Women with Diabetes DVD