The early prenatal interview (EPP), or individual interview for the 4th month of pregnancy, is a meeting with a trained perinatal professional, without a medical examination. Its objective is to collect the requests and fears of pregnant women about the progress of pregnancy and childbirth and to set up, according to the request, a birth plan. For 10 years, this interview has been fully covered by social security. However, still too few future mothers benefit from it since only 40% of them go to this interview, according to a survey of health networks in perinatal care by the National Institute for Public Health Surveillance (Invs).
A first survey, conducted in 2010, reported that only one in 5 women had attended the early prenatal interview. Progress has therefore been made to promote the interest of this interview, which is most often carried out (in 92.5% of cases) by a midwife. But they are not yet sufficient.
“Of the 1,067 cases where the interview was not offered, 673 women (63.1%) said it was not offered to them. In the 394 cases where the interview was offered but not achieved, 91 women (23.1%) declared that they did not have time to do so; 172 women (43.7%) refused it and 131 women (33.2%) did not give a reason “say the authors of the study.
An often late prenatal interview
On average, women went to their prenatal interview at 23 weeks of amenorrhea, that is to say around 5 months of pregnancy, with significant gaps ranging from 13 weeks (end of the 1st trimester) to around 39 weeks. (almost at the end of pregnancy). Overall, 4% of PPE occurred in the 1st trimester of pregnancy, 73% in the 2nd trimester and 23% in the 3rd trimester.
But the authors of the study especially regret that there is no specific access offered to women with daily difficulties, addictive behaviors, or social and psychological risks. The interview “must be better known so that women can speak freely and express their expectations,” they explain.
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