A Study on the Effects of Father Class upon Father's Level of Knowledge and Confidence about Postpartal Woman and Newborn Care

산후 아버지 교실이 산욕기관리와 신생아 돌보기의 지식정도와 자신감에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to find out how the Father Class, which is being practiced at a hospital located in Seoul, influences on fathers' level of knowledge and confidence of postpartal mother and newborn care. Research design was quasi-experimental study using non equivalent experiment and control group. The data, questionaires, were collected from Sep. 13, 2001 to Oct. 31, 2001 through e-mail, telephone and mail, after discharge from S hospital located in Seoul, where the experimental group was educated at the Father Class and control group didn't take part in the class. The objects were the fathers who have the first baby through normal delivery or C-sec delivery including experimental group 48 persons and control group 52 persons. Four instruments were the revised ones of Lee Mi Kyoung's(1990) and Kwak Yon Hee's tool based on the resources of direct interviews of fathers and one expert, professor. The reliability of four instruments were Cronbach's $\alpha$ scores .85 -93. Data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0 program using $x^2$-test, and t-test and, One- way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation, etc. The results of this study are as follows; 1.The two groups were confirmed as a homogeneous group by showing no significant difference statistically at the level of 5%. 2.The results of proving the hypothesis are followings: 1)The first hypothesis, "the fathers who participated in the Father Class will have the higher level of knowledge about postpartal mother care than the fathers who didn't" was accepted by significant difference statistically (p=0.000). 2)The second hypothesis, "the fathers who took part in the class will have the higher confidence in postpartal mother care than the fathers who didn't", was supported by significant difference statistically (p=0.000). 3) The third hypothesis, "the fathers who attended the class will have the better knowledge about taking care of newborn than the others", was accepted by significant difference statistically (p=0.000). 4)The fourth hypothesis, "the fathers who participated in the class will have the higher confidence in newborn care than others," was supported by significant difference statistically (p=0.000). 3.The further analysis showed whether they participated in Prenatal Birth Preparing Class influenced on the father's level of knowledge and confidence in postpartal mother and newborn care. In conclusion, the Father Class is the effective nursing intervention strategy that can help new fathers attain father and husband roles by enhancing the level of confidence in and knowledge of the postpartal mother and newborn care.