Teaching Childbirth Support Techniques Using the Prepared Partner and Digital Birth

Abstract

In today's California, a mother's primary social support person in childbirth is her partner, guiding her through a multidimensional experience, helping her make sense of unforgettable emotions and sensations. Preparing the partner is an integral step to making sure that the mother is well-supported in her birth. Because the mother's experience is influenced by the support she receives, and because birth partners need more support than is recognized, we target birth partners with a learning intervention. We investigate video games as a vehicle for knowledge transfer to the birth partner, both as currently available and as a positive learning tool. To address the problem of limited access to childbirth preparation methods, we investigated, designed, and evaluated two games: The Prepared Partner, an online Flash game, and Digital Birth, an iPhone application. Both games allow the user to practice various supportive actions in the realm of childbirth support for a mother in labor. We found that players of The Prepared Partner met learning goals while enjoying the game.