INFAD (Jun 2020)
Beliefs of future teachers regarding perinatal education
Abstract
Many studies highlight the importance of the psychological development during perinatal stage. Future teachers opinions could help us with the need to increase this training based on personal experiences and environmental teachings. The purpose of this study is to go deeper into university teaching student s convictions about the importance of the perinatal education and its development through the analysis of a 36 students written speech of 20-year-old students on average, using a qualitative study. Some of the questions related to the perinatal development that had been proposed during the subject of “Development Psychology” at Toledo`s university were, among others, “is it possible to kiss and hug a baby or do you think that you could spoil him?”; “why do you think the skin to skin contact is recommendable after the birth?”; “ who is, according to your personal opinion, the most important person for a baby at a biological, psychological and social development?”; or “what is your opinion about the consequences of being loved during the first months of a baby s life? All these questions were answered individually by students. Most of students thought as a positive idea to kiss and hug the baby, referring to the mother as the most important person for him, although it is true that there were some discrepancies with this last point. Talking about the idea of feeling loved or not during the first months of life, students highlighted its importance in relation to the socio-emotional development. Finally, talking about the skin to skin contact, most of students considered it as an essential point for a good bond between the mother and the baby. Based on these results, we consider necessary to keep the perinatal education as a unit of study included in Development Psychology s subject. Through this topic, we could have a deeper look that would help future teachers to analyze the babies and families needs during the perinatal period.
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