Communication between pregnant women and maternal and child health professionals and trust in professionals and awareness of source of help in the postpartum period: Evaluation using JACSIS Pregnant-Postpartum Women's Data 2020-2021

<p>Objective　This study aims to estimate the impact of maternal and child health professional consultation and development of support plans during pregnancy on trust in community health professionals (trust) and awareness of sources of public/private institutional support (awareness) in the postpartum period.</p><p>Methods　A web-based panel survey was conducted in July-August 2021 and January-February 2022, targeting women who were pregnant during the 2021 survey and 0-5 months postpartum in 2022. We collected information about consultation opportunities and development of a support plan during pregnancy, trust and recognition, demographic characteristics, employment status, and pregnancy- and childbirth-related variables. First, logistic regression analysis was conducted by setting trust and recognition during postpartum as outcomes. Exposure variables were the consultation opportunities and development of a support plan during the pregnancy period. Second, we added the presence of a comprehensive support center for raising children, the financial index of the municipality of residence, the per capita child welfare expenditure, and the number of nurses at the comprehensive support center for maternal and child health to the analytical model as overall level of municipal support in order to check the robustness of our results.</p><p>Results　Responses were obtained from pregnant women across Japan. Of the 616 respondents included in the analysis, 74.0% had opportunities for consultation, 23.7% made support plans, 69.8% trusted local maternal and child health professionals, and 63.6% recognized public/private institutional support as places for help-seeking. Logistic regression analysis showed that trust and recognition were higher among those who had opportunities to consult and had created a support plan compared to those who did not. With regard to trust, for those who had opportunities to consult, the odds ratio (OR) was 2.05 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.37-3.07), and for those who developed a support plan, the OR was 2.25 (95% CI 1.41-3.60). As for recognition, the OR was 1.46 (95% CI 0.98-2.16) if given the opportunity for consultation. For development of a support plan, the OR was 3.05 (95% CI 1.94-4.80). These results did not change even after adjusting for municipal finances and the level of support for pregnant women in general.</p><p>Conclusions　Consultation opportunities and developing support plans during pregnancy increased trust and recognition in the postpartum period while municipal finances or overall support for child rearing were not associated with these outcomes, thus suggesting the importance of engagement with professionals during pregnancy.</p>