The Effectiveness of Baby Books for Providing Pediatric Anticipatory Guidance to New Mothers

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether embedding pediatric anticipatory guidance into books read to infants is an effective way to educate low-income, first-time mothers about injury-prevention and health-promotion practices. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Primiparous women (N = 168) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: an educational-book group; a noneducational-book group; or a no-book group. Knowledge of anticipatory-guidance topics regarding children from birth to 12 months of age (eg, injury prevention, parenting, nutrition) was assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and again when infants were ∼2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months of age. RESULTS: Women in the educational-book group scored consistently higher on knowledge than did those in the other 2 groups. Those in the educational-book group were found to have significantly higher knowledge scores than those in both the noneducational-book group (effect size [ES]: 0.3, P < .001) and the no-book group (ES: 0.3, P < .001) in the longitudinal model. CONCLUSIONS: Books read by mothers to infants seem to be an effective way to provide anticipatory guidance to new mothers. However, future work is needed to determine if increased knowledge translates into safer and more developmentally appropriate parenting practices.