Preventive Home Visiting

Forty first-time mothers were randomly allocated to two groups, half who received the service of a home visitor and half who did not. The home visitor commenced visitation during the last month of pregnancy and continued until the baby was three months old, visiting or contacting the mother approximately once weekly. Pre and post measures of self-esteem, anxiety, locus of control and acceptance were taken, the only significant difference between the treated and the control group was a lower trait anxiety in the target group. However, the other results were in the predicted direction. While all of the mothers requested the service, those mothers who received the service stated they valued it highly. Three mothers in the target group were identified as being “at risk” and received appropriate treatment; they had not been located by any of the health services with whom they were in contact. The present study raised a number of issues associated with the delivery of such primary prevention services, particularly the need for more adequate program evaluation.