“All Moms Need to Know about This”: A Qualitative Analysis of New Mothers’ Perceptions around Pelvic Floor Disorders for a Preventative Practice Campaign

This study’s purpose was to decrease women’s chances of developing a pelvic floor disorder (PFD) by creating a theory-based, preventative campaign for new mothers utilizing the extended parallel process model (EPPM) as a framework. By finding new mothers’ knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors surrounding PFDs, their perceived levels of severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy, and response-efficacy toward PFDs before and after becoming more educated on the issue were also uncovered. This paper found that increasing new mothers’ level of knowledge with specific messages on PFDs significantly raises their perceived levels of severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy, and response-efficacy toward the issue. The study also had practical value in that it facilitated the construction of ready-to-implement campaign materials.