Acceptability of couple antenatal education: A qualitative study of expectant couples attending antenatal clinics in Blantyre, Malawi

BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed the effectiveness and acceptability of male partner involvement in antenatal education. Yet, male involvement in antenatal care including antenatal education has been proposed as a strategy to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. We conducted this study to add to the body of knowledge on acceptability of male partner involvement in antenatal education following an intervention. METHODS: This was a cross sectional qualitative study using 18 in-depth interviews with 10 couples, 5 women from the couples group and 3 nurse-midwife technicians. Participants were purposively selected and interviewed between July and November, 2017. The study setting was South Lunzu and Mpemba Health Centres and their catchment areas. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and translated from Chichewa into English. Data were coded in Nvivo 10.0 and analyzed thematically. FINDINGS: We identified three themes: benefit of content received; organization of couple antenatal education appropriate for male partner involvement; and delivery of couple antenatal education incentive for male involvement and learning. However, some improvements were suggested regarding content, organization and delivery of the education sessions. CONCLUSION: Couple antenatal education was acceptable to the couples and the facilitators in terms of content received, organization and delivery. Nevertheless, adding naming the baby to the list of topics, creating a special day for couples to attend antenatal education and providing a readable leaflet are likely to make couple antenatal education more user friendly.