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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Perry, Wendy Cox, May 1993 - The Use of Focus Groups in the Evaluation of the Florida Outreach Childbirth Education Project
Abstract: This thesis describes the contribution of focus group research to the evaluation of the Florida Outreach Childbirth Education Project--a statewide program that provides childbirth education to low income families in Florida. The evaluation was conducted to determine the degree to which the Outreach Project was meeting its goals and to generate recommendations for its improvement. This thesis presents the research results and a discussion of the focus group data from an anthropological perspective. New mothers and fathers who had attended the childbirth education classes participated in focus group interviews, where they discussed their birth experiences and the strengths and weaknesses of the childbirth education classes and made recommendations for improving the program. Focus groups were important to the program evaluation because they allowed the evaluators to gain insights about the program from the people who are most directly involved in it. The focus group data were analyzed from an anthropological perspective. According to the anthropological literature, women with different social and cultural backgrounds view the experiences of pregnancy and childbirth differently. The focus group data demonstrated that overall, perceptions of the childbirth education classes were positive. The participants also noted areas of the classes which needed changes and made recommendations for improving the classes. The author's recommendations include 1) increasing the outreach to low income families and ethnic minorities, 2) teaching the childbirth educators to be sensitive to crosscultural variation, and 3) including more information about breast-feeding and potential medical intervention in the curriculum. Interpreting the data from an anthropological perspective and basing the recommendations on the student's comments led to more socially and culturally appropriate recommendations. The data demonstrated that many of the goals of the Florida Outreach Childbirth Education Project are being met, and that some areas need improvement. The anthropological recommendations will be beneficial to the program because they incorporate the understanding that effective childbirth education programs must reflect an awareness of the relationship between culture and childbirth.
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