An exploration of mothers’ and fathers’ perspectives on a mhealth application to support parents in the first 1,000 days of life

Background and objective: The first 1,000 days of life play a crucial role in the child’s health and development. However, existing mHealth solutions often provide unreliable information about this critical period, without considering the real needs of parents and, worse still, usually neglecting fathers. We explored the information needs of both parents for a hypothetical mobile application to support the first 1,000 days. Methods: Between May and August 2022, we enrolled new and expectant parents attending an Institute for Maternal and Child Health in north-eastern Italy in a cross-sectional study. We administered a 39-item questionnaire on a 5-point Likert scale (0-not important at all; 4-absolutely essential) to assess the importance of a set of content about pregnancy and postpartum provided by the proposed application. Based on mean scores (M±SD), items with ratings greater than or equal to 3.5 were identified as top ranked items related to priority content. Results: Priorities differed between mothers (n=94) and fathers (n=69). Five of the six top ranked items for fathers were related to “pregnancy”, including general information about pregnancy (3.7±0.6), information about possible infections (3.6±0.7), examinations to be performed (3.5±0.7), and delivery (3.5±0.7). Conversely, six of the nine top ranked items for mothers fell into the “postpartum” domain, including information about neonatal complications and warning signs (3.7±0.9), tips for the postpartum recovery process (3.5±0.8) and newborn care (3.5±0.7), information on breastfeeding practices (3.5±0.9), neonatal screening procedures (3.5±0.8), and risk prevention measures related to the newborn (3.5±1.1). Conclusion: Overall, the fact that fathers focus on pregnancy might indicate that they are more “unprepared” for this phase compared to mothers who are ready to face the postpartum period. Valuing the different perspectives of mothers and fathers is essential to develop mHealth solutions that promote gender-equitable family empowerment to deftly navigate the first 1,000 days of life.