Impact of husbands' participation in antenatal health education services on maternal health knowledge

Introduction: A randomized controlled trial was designed to test the impact of involving husbands in antenatal health education on women's maternal health knowledge. Methods: Total 442 women receiving antenatal services at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal were randomized into three groups: women who attended education sessions with their husbands, women who attended education sessions alone, and women who attended no education sessions (controls). At baseline and after delivery, women's maternal health knowledge and change in knowledge levels were compared between the groups. Results: Compared to control group women, women educated with husbands increased their knowledge scores by an average of 0.61 points (95% CI=0.32-0.89, P<0.001), while women educated alone increased their scores by only 0.34 points (95% CI=0.04-0.65, P<0.05). Women educated with partners could identify more pregnancy complications and family planning methods than women in both other groups. Conclusions: These findings suggest that women learn and retain the most information when they are educated with their partners.