This paper provides an example of the use of OER to facilitate health education. Across the world a majority of pregnant women use the internet to provide information over and above what health services provide (Declercq, 2014) and this information affects their decision-making (Lagan et al, 2010). However, in the UK many women are not told about National Health Service (NHS) parenting information websites (Redshaw and Henderson, 2014) meaning that many women will be referring to information that is neither evidence-based nor regulated. Benefits of OER in this area include the possibility of interaction, accessibility, use of images and ease of updating. If developed by the NHS, these OER can be evidence-based. Podcasts for educating patients about certain diseases already exist, for example diabetes (Hoskins, 2015).While there are podcasts with parenting and family advice, none are verified in relation to their information content, nor designed to provide a succinct, evidence-based antenatal (parentcraft) education. In the Scottish Highlands, NHS staff in consultation with a parent group, decided to develop podcasts for those in rural, and especially remote rural areas, as they have difficulty accessing health education due to distance and travel time. The topics chosen by the group were giving birth, feeding, crying and sleeping. The podcast scripts were written by a team of paediatricians, midwifes, and psychologists. A service evaluation was conducted to assess the uptake of the podcasts. Pregnant women due to deliver between December 2015 and March 2016 were invited to listen to the podcasts (n=423). Scottish 6-fold Urban-Rural Classification (Scottish Government, 2014), marital status, age and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (Scottish Government, 2017) characteristics were compared between those who did and did not access the podcasts. Those who accessed the podcasts were sent an online questionnaire. It was found that rurally located women were more likely to access the podcasts, even though they are less likely to attend parentcraft classes. This could mean that the podcasts, or other OER, have the potential to increase accessibility of parentcraft education to rurally located women.

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