Research Article: Reported infant safety information and perinatal service engagement among birth partners and co-parents. An exploratory cross-sectional survey at a large UK teaching hospital

Abstract:
Infant mortality in the United Kingdom is higher in areas of socioeconomic deprivation and within several minority ethnic groups. Preventive strategies rely in part on safety information reaching families during the perinatal period. The extent to which birth partners and co-parents report exposure to that information is not well characterised. To describe self-reported exposure to selected infant safety topics and reported engagement with perinatal services among birth partners and co-parents attending one large UK teaching hospital, and to explore variation across respondent profiles defined by ethnicity and parity. An exploratory cross-sectional survey of 73 birth partners and co-parents was conducted at University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust between October 2022 and July 2023. Eight self-reported knowledge or awareness items and six self-reported engagement items were collected. Item-level proportions were summarised with Wilson 95 percent confidence intervals. Group comparisons used Fisher's exact test with Haldane-corrected prevalence ratios and Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment applied separately within each demographic comparison. Composite Knowledge Proportion Scores and Engagement Proportion Scores were computed for respondents with at least half of the relevant items answered. Internal consistency was estimated with the Kuder-Richardson 20 coefficient, association with Spearman's rank correlation, and group differences with the Mann–Whitney U test. Reporting follows the STROBE statement for cross-sectional studies. Reported exposure was highest for smoking risk (69.9 percent, 95 percent CI 58.6–79.2) and lowest for basic bystander life support (17.8 percent, 95 percent CI 10.7–28.1). Engagement was highest for NHS website use and post-birth breastfeeding support (both 61.6 percent, 95 percent CI 50.2–71.9) and lowest for antenatal classes (24.7 percent, 95 percent CI 16.2–35.6). Composite scales showed high internal consistency (KR-20 of 0.94 for knowledge, 0.93 for engagement). The two composite scores were strongly correlated (Spearman's ? =?0.965, p <?0.001). Ethnicity and parity were completely confounded in the usable sample, with all first-time parents identifying as White British and all respondents in the combined Other category identifying as experienced parents. Observed differences between these respondent profiles cannot be attributed independently to ethnicity or parity. In this exploratory single-site sample, self-reported exposure to practical infant emergency-care topics was low. Substantial differences were observed between two contrasting respondent profiles, although the confounded design and small convenience sample do not support causal claims about ethnic inequities or infant mortality risk reduction. The findings are hypothesis-generating and support the case for larger, more diverse studies designed to separate the contributions of ethnicity, parity, and other social determinants.

Introduction:
Infant mortality in the United Kingdom is higher in areas of socioeconomic deprivation and within several minority ethnic groups. Preventive strategies rely in part on safety information reaching families during the perinatal period. The extent to which birth partners and co-parents report exposure to that information is not well characterised.

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