Online Group Consultation on Labor Analgesia for Pregnant Women: Is It Feasible?

INTRODUCTION

Our department of anesthesiology has been conducting weekly, for several years, a group consultation to educate childbearing people about labor analgesia. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic forced an adaptation to a virtual consultation format. Since there are no studies about online group consultation on labor analgesia in order to understand its role, an anonymous questionnaire was created and applied. The objective was to evaluate this new consultation format, namely the ease of access, usefulness of the content provided, and its impact on the satisfaction and experience of childbirth.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An observational prospective study was conducted. A questionnaire was sent by e-mail after childbirth to all childbearing people participating in the online consultation from January 20, 2021, to March 2, 2022. SPSS Statistics version 28.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2021. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 28.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp) was used for statistical analysis. Internal consistency was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha.

RESULTS

A total of 563 participants were eligible, and 404 (71.8%) completed questionnaires were analyzed. A few technical problems were reported. The participants considered their privacy respected, and more than 90% were satisfied with the content of the online consultation, the opportunity to pose questions, and the help managing expectations. Considering face-to-face consultation, 89.6% of patients considered the online format an effective alternative, 63.2% believed it could replace the old model, and 96.3% would recommend it.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrates that online consultation on labor analgesia was a good strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic and has the potential to be used in this format in the future.