Background – In Sweden expectant and new parents are offered parental education groups (PE) during pregnancy in Antenatal Care (AC) and after delivery in Child health Care (CHC) with the goal of preparing for childbirth and parenthood. Parents also seek information from  other sources such as the webb and magazines to gain information. Nevertheless, many parents feel unprepared for parenthood. During pregnancy and the time closest to childbirth is an important part of the transition to parenting and parents are very receptive to advice and information. To gain more knowledge about parents’ participation in PE the aim of this study was to explore expectant and new parents’ reasons to participate or not participate in PE.

Method – A web questionnaire including open questions was answered by 915 parents with children aged 0 to 21 months. Open questions about (a) reasons to not participate, (b) anything that could change their mind and (c) parenting support instead of the PE was analyses using content analysis.

Findings – The parents expressed reasons not to attend on an individual, group and organizational level. At an individual level they expressed personal reasons or that they had other forms of support. When it came to the group level the parents asked for more heterogeneity and openness regarding both the groups’ content and methods, not excluding parents and that parents’ different interests could be accommodated within the group. Reasons for not attending PE at organizational level were due to lack of information or invitation from AC or CHC, or that  PE was not available.

Conclusion

Parents ask for more nonconformity and diversity in PE. Despite of different approaches or attitudes all parents should be able to feel included in a way that would be relevant for them to participate in PE.