Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: In Iran the rate of Cesarean section is reported to be 48%, which is higher than the acceptable rate recommended by WHO (15%). This study was conducted to determine the effect of an intervention based on social marketing on the reduction of intention to choose Cesarean section by primigravidae in Boyer-Ahmad County, Iran in 2015.

Materials and Methods: In this field trial 39 primigravidae three to four months pregnant who had an intention to choose Cesarean section for delivery participated. A formative research (a quantitative survey and a qualitative study) was done to achieve the social marketing mix, and based on the results a tailored intervention was designed and pretested on the subjects. The final intervention was implemented for a period of one month and its effectiveness assessed after at least one month by a proportion test.

Results: The average age of the women was 25.82 years. The proportion of the women with a high school (or lower) and university education was 38.5% and 61.5%, respectively. One month after the intervention thirty of the pregnant women expressed willingness and intention to have a normal delivery, which was a statistically significant change (p=0.01).

Conclusion: An educational intervention based on the consumer-oriented social marketing theory can be effective in designing, implementing and evaluating a program aiming at reducing Cesarean section intention.

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Background and Aim: Sexuality education is one of the most important educational needs of adolescents, and mothers can have a key role in sex education of their daughters. This study aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating a skill-based training program for mothers for sexuality education of adolescent girls in Mahshahr, Iran.
Materials and Methods: This was a field trial conducted on 140 mothers having 12- to18-year-old girls between September and March 2012. Data were collected using two reliable questionnaires developed by the investigators ─ a "Parent-Child Relationship: Mother" questionnaire for assessing the mothers’ communication skills completed by the adolescent girls, and a "Knowledge and attitude about sexuality education of adolescents" questionnaire for assessing the mothers’ knowledge and attitude about sex matters and communication, skills completed by the mothers themselves. Based on the results, an educational intervention for mothers was designed consisting of three training sessions and implemented. The mothers’ knowledge, attitude and communication scores after a period of three months were compared with the respective baseline scores.  
Results: Three months after the intervention, the mean scores of mothers’ knowledge and attitude about sexuality matters increased significantly (in both cases p <0.01). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the initial and final scores of mothers’ communication skills (p = 0.37).
Conclusion: Based on the findings it can be concluded that the designed educational program was effective in improving the knowledge and attitudes of the mother about sexuality matters although it did not affect their communication skills. Promoting communication skills of mothers as an important factor for sexuality education of their daughters requires regular, continuous educational sessions, as well as practice and experiences.