The effect of education by community health volunteers on choice of delivery kind in pregnant women based on the Behavioral Intention Model (BIM

Delivery or parturition is the peak of a woman’s pregnancy period, accompanied with birth of one or more babies. Unfortunately, Cesarean section, despite its probable undesirable health and economic consequences, has become more and more common. Considering that the goal of health education is behavior change in people, the objective of this study was to investigate the role of health volunteers in educating mothers consulting the health care centers in Ardabil in the area of choice of delivery method based on the Behavioral Intention Model (BIM). In this experimental study, 140 primaparous mothers in Ardabil city in the seventh month of pregnancy were selected by systematic random sampling and divided into a case and a control group, and a written pretest was given to both groups. Education based on the BIM was imparted to the case group. One month after delivery, both groups were post-tested. The data on awareness, attitude, results evaluation and practice were analyzed using the Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney-U and Chi-square tests. The findings revealed statistical differences between the case and control groups after intervention with regard to awareness, evaluation of results and attitude (p<0.001). However, behavioral intention did not change (p=0.106). Although health volunteer's participation results in an increase in knowledge and promotes attitude and evaluation of behavioral results in pregnant women, it does not change their behavioral intention. It is suggested to conduct similar studies for comparative purposes involving other trainers, such as physicians and nurses in other cities, using other educational models and methods.