Comparison of the Effects of Educational Software and Training Booklet on Maternal Self-efficacy and Infant Care Behavior in Iranian Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: To achieve the optimal care of baby, mothers need to have sufficient self-efficacy in infant care. This study aimed to compare the effects of educational software and training booklet on the maternal self-efficacy and infant care behavior. Materials and Methods: This randomized controlled trial was done on 126 Iranian pregnant women. The Participants were assigned into two intervention groups (42 women received software and 42 women received booklet) and a control group (42 women received routine trainings) through block randomization. A training session was provided orally to the participants in both intervention groups. Then they were provided with the booklet or software. The questionnaires of standard maternal self-efficacy and researcher-made infant care behavior were completed before intervention and at the end of the fourth week of postpartum. Results: Before the intervention, there was no significant difference in terms of the mean scores of the maternal self-efficacy (P=0.192) and infant care behavior (P=0.937) between groups. Controlling the baseline values, a statistically significant increase was observed in the mean scores of the maternal self-efficacy in the booklet group (mean difference: 3.7; 95% Confidence Interval: 2.2 to 5.2) and software group (2.5; 1.0 to 3.9) compared to the control group; however, no statistically significant difference was observed between the two intervention groups. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference in the infant care behavior mean score between the groups at the end of the study (P=0.398). Conclusion: The results indicate the effectiveness of both the software and booklet in enhancing the maternal self-efficacy. The effect of booklet was more compared to the Educational Software, but not statistically significant.