Antenatal Education as an employee benefit? Investing in the future of families.
Why Antenatal Education is an investment, not just an employee perk
Investing in antenatal education is not just a perk, it's an investment in a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce."
Jilly Clarke
The landscape of employee benefits is changing. The landscape of the maternity system is changing.
Businesses are increasingly seeking ways to go beyond traditional corporate employee benefit offerings and invest in their employees' wellbeing, to truly make a difference to the lives of their workforce. Whether that is investing in physical or mental wellbeing, supporting them holistically to improve their lives.
One area often overlooked, but with significant potential impact, is supporting expectant parents. Not just maternity pay or paternity or parental leave, but education on improving family lives.
The journey of pregnancy, birth and recovery is a subject of national importance. It is a time of incredible physical and emotional strain, with a lot of stress and pressure that is hidden from public view. Pregnancy, birth and raising a child changes lives and futures.
A difficult birth experience creates a difficult return to work, and can have a huge impact on employees lives. Improving birth should be at the top of everybody’s agenda.
Traditionally, Antenatal Education would be reserved for the third trimester, the final few months of pregnancy and be focused on birth. But with an increasing rise in birth trauma, which has a long-lasting impact on the whole family and their entire lives, it is time to adopt a different strategy. The traditional way is not working and has not worked for a long time.
At The Birth and Baby Company, we have a solution.
We believe that the best time for antenatal education is before pregnancy, or as early as possible during pregnancy.
Antenatal Education should go beyond birth and include understanding how to navigate appointments, learning about the human body as it grows and develops a human, and knowing how our lifestyle can impact our pregnancy, birth and recovery journey.
Antenatal Education should equip birth partners to navigate pregnancy, physically engage with the birth process and focus on their own recovery too.
Employers have a unique opportunity to help change the lives of expectant and new parents, and future generations. To have a huge positive impact on the birth outcomes of their workforce and create a stronger society.
For too long, and in too many areas the focus is on new parents understanding, and trying to find a cure for birth issues. The maternity system signs people off after 6 weeks and new parents have to largely fend for themselves, often after very difficult birth experiences. But we know that education, support and knowledge, can provide the necessary prevention to an epidemic of birth trauma and injury.
Supporting employees through their parenting journey has a business as well as a philanthropic benefit to businesses all over the world. Here's why antenatal education needs to be a top consideration for any forward-thinking company.
1. Investing in prevention
By investing in antenatal education, you're not just supporting your employees during a critical life stage, you're potentially helping to prevent difficult births, birth trauma and the associated costs for both your employees and the healthcare system.
Choice is vital for pregnant service users, and everybody is entitled to birth the way they choose. But evidence suggests that reducing the C-section rates to the levels of the best performing European countries it could save the NHS in England and Wales £39millon
a year. With emergency, unplanned C-sections at an all time high, investing in quality education for your employees could go towards a significant cost saving for the country.
Whilst the NHS spend in maternity care is £3billion a year, £900million was spent on past obstetric negligence cases. These claims often stem from situations where communication breaks down, where there’s inadequate training from staff, or a lack of informed decision-making led to birth trauma for both mother and baby.
Whilst antenatal education can never eliminate difficult birth experiences; access to robust, evidence-based antenatal education can improve informed decision making and help parents to be feel knowledgeable, informed and empowered.
Although money saving isn’t the aim of quality antenatal education, the goal is to empower and support expectant parents. Helping families to understand their choices and make them with confidence. By investing in an antenatal education provision for your employees, you are giving them a chance to actively work towards a better pregnancy and birth outcome. Whilst it cannot be guaranteed, education that supports families in their choices does lead to better outcomes for them and their children.
The Effect of Structured Antenatal Education on Childbirth Self-Efficacy - PMC.
(nih.gov)
By providing your employees with robust antenatal education, it will allow them to start preparing for birth earlier. The recently published Birth Trauma Report highlights the importance of antenatal education; but when considering a whole population their recommendations cannot go far enough to make significant and lasting change. Their recommendation of a discussion at 34 weeks pregnant about the options for birth does not allow any time to make an impact on outcomes.
By accessing robust education in the early second trimester or before, confidence levels can improve, self-advocacy and self-efficacy can improve and there is a higher chance of better birth outcomes. A more aware and knowledgeable workforce helps to prevent additional appointments and lost work time, helps to improve birth outcomes and makes transitions back to work for all parents an easier process.
2. Empowered employees = Empowered parents
Imagine a pregnant employee, or an expectant parent. They are excited, but also filled with questions and anxieties about the birthing process, parenthood, and how it will impact their work-life balance. Pregnancy brings with it a variety of medical screenings and appointments, and different medical professionals. It can be difficult to know how to advocate for yourself, and to strike a balance between the medical system and our own desires for pregnancy and birth. Health is the number one priority for employees, with 9/10 employees choosing personal and family health as their main priority in a survey in 2022.
The Birth and Baby Company’s antenatal education equips employees with the knowledge and confidence to navigate this exciting yet sometimes overwhelming time, putting their own health first. Learning about prenatal health, how to work to make pregnancy more comfortable, and to potentially help with birth; to balance their health needs with the maternity system. Understanding how the body works during pregnancy can help to reduce discomfort, limit absences due to appointments or problems, and lead to a more productive employee.
Understanding birth options, and how to influence how birth can happen can have a huge impact on productivity for both pregnant employees but also birth partners. Information on choices for antenatal screening and appointments, help to deal with the pressure of the modern maternity system. They can all help empower families. Guidance on recovery, newborn care, and development can allow new parents to return to work feeling empowered to make informed decisions for themselves and their family. Having a database of evidence based, quality and frequently researched education can allow parents to feel confidence in the start of their parenting journey.
3. Reduced stress, increased productivity
Pregnancy is a whirlwind of emotions and physical changes, appointments and negotiations. Without proper support, stress can take a toll on an employee's wellbeing and work performance.
The Birth and Baby Company’s antenatal education not only delivers education in a bite-sized, easily manageable way, it also equips employees with tools to manage stress and anxiety. Easy, simple to manage daily activities to reduce stress and anxiety, and to reduce stress on the body too can lead to a more focused and productive workforce.
Additionally, by addressing all the common concerns, policies, discussions, interventions, and importantly strategies to advocate for oneself; the program can help employees feel more prepared for the transition to parenthood, and navigating antenatal appointments. This minimises work disruptions during the prenatal period, and reduces anxieties about returning after leave.
4. Building a supportive culture
Offering antenatal education demonstrates that your company cares about its employees' lives beyond the office. With 1 in 3 employees believing that health and wellbeing is not a business priority where they work, investing in antenatal education can prove to employees that they are considered, and valued where they work.
This fosters a sense of loyalty and appreciation, leading to higher employee engagement and retention. It also sends a powerful message about your commitment to creating a family-friendly culture, attracting top talent who value work-life balance and employer support.
5. Reduced costs, increased ROI
Supporting employee health and wellbeing translates to a healthier bottom line for your company. Antenatal education can lead to:
Reduced time off: Employees equipped with knowledge about prenatal health issues are less likely to miss work due to complications and increased appointments. Less antenatal appointments and less stress could allow for a more productive work environment.
Partners are entitled time off for two unpaid appointments lasting up to 6.5hrs each. If an antenatal appointment and associated travel and waiting time is estimated at 6.5hrs then antenatal education could allow for more time spent working, with less complicated multidisciplinary appointments.
Lower healthcare costs: Educated employees are more likely to make informed choices about prenatal care, potentially leading to fewer pregnancy-related complications. Where this places a strain on company healthcare policies, or staffing costs these can both be reduced. Not to mention the evidence for reducing the cost to the country.
Increased productivity: By managing stress and feeling supported, employees can stay focused and productive throughout their pregnancy.
The Birth and Baby Company can help
Our on-demand antenatal courses and support programs provide expecting parents with the knowledge and confidence they need for a smooth pregnancy, birth, and transition to parenthood. Our range of packages can provide 1:1 support, regular Q&As. Crucially, all packages provide education on communication with healthcare professionals, understanding risks and options, knowledge on physically supporting themselves through pregnancy, birth and recovery, and advocating for their preferences.
Contact us today to learn how we can help your company support its most valuable asset – its people.