Sexuality in Pregnancy: New Approaches to Effective Patient Education

Pregnancy is a complex period of changing self-image and body transformation. These profound emotional, psychological, and emotional changes can greatly affect the sexual health of pregnant women and their partners. Despite these profound changes, many women do not mention or receive any counseling from their obstetric care providers on this topic. This lack of discussion is due to identified patient, provider and system barriers that include time constraints, embarrassment, shame, and lack of knowledge. The lack of communication leaves women turning to non-evidence based forms of anecdotal or online education that can serve to perpetuate incorrect information, fears, and myths on sexual activity in pregnancy. Current research suggests that a majority of Americans go to the internet as a primary source of health information, and innovative patient education tools should see this as an opportunity to increase health promotion and literacy. The use of new and widely accessible forms of online patient education should be created to provide information that is not only evidence-based, but free of cost, easily accessible, and can serve as a starting point for patients and providers to open the conversation on sexuality in pregnancy. The goal of this scholarly project was to address the lack of communication about sexuality in pregnancy between patients and providers by developing comprehensive, standardized patient education tools that are available online. Initially, a thorough literature review was completed to determine the current standards of practice and identify current gaps in research and patient education on sexuality and sexual health in pregnancy. To increase patient education, a podcast was recorded on sexuality in pregnancy in collaboration with a local mental health treatment center. This podcast is available free of cost through multiple platforms online. In addition, a patient education handout was drafted for future submission to the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) "Share with Women" patient education series. This aligns with the 2008 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggestion that health care provider organizations should step up in distributing understandable materials for their members to use with their patients and families to promote universal access to health information. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed patient education tools, a recorded focus group discussion with pregnant and postpartum women took place. The tools were modified based on participant feedback. The patient education handout was then submitted for publication and national dissemination within the Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health (JMWH). After publishing, this patient handout will be available online and free of cost to allow providers and patients to view, print, and disseminate. The knowledge gained through this project will then be further disseminated at a local ACNM chapter meeting. In summary, although providers are aware of changes to sexuality in pregnancy and have an understanding of possible counseling points, we are not communicating this to women to normalize and assuage fears. Allowing this deficiency to persist would effectively be neglecting to address an entire aspect on the health continuum.