Short-Term Changes in Childbirth Readiness Following Srikandi Model Training Among Village Health Volunteers and Family Companions

Background: Maternal health emergencies may be exacerbated by inadequate childbirth preparation, delayed decision-making, and limited community capacity for early risk recognition. Evidence remains limited on structured interventions that jointly strengthen childbirth readiness among family companions and community health volunteers in rural Indonesia. This study aimed to assess short-term changes in knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practical readiness after SRIKANDI Model training and to describe the training's preliminary feasibility. Methods: We conducted a pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest study, reported according to the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) statement, among 30 participants, 15 village health volunteers and 15 family companions, selected through purposive sampling in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia. The intervention was an eight-hour SRIKANDI Model training focused on identifying early maternal danger signs, decision navigation, and monitoring workflows. We measured knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practical readiness immediately before and after training using an adapted Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) questionnaire. We also observed volunteers' performance once in simulated scenarios during the final training simulations using the LOKA-SRIKANDI checklist (no baseline observation). Pre–post differences were analyzed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test; a Bonferroni-adjusted threshold of α = 0.05/6 = 0.0083 was applied across the six comparisons. Results: All participants reported no previous formal childbirth-preparation training. Immediately after training, family companions' scores increased for knowledge (8.20 ± 0.86 to 9.13 ± 0.74), attitude (81.67% ± 6.22% to 89.78% ± 4.85%), and self-reported practical readiness (69.56% ± 8.14% to 81.89% ± 5.30%). Among health volunteers, knowledge increased from 7.80 ± 0.94 to 9.20 ± 0.68, attitude from 66.78% ± 7.45% to 74.11% ± 5.12%, and self-reported practical readiness from 54.93% ± 9.30% to 74.40% ± 6.20%. All six pre–post differences were statistically significant at the adjusted threshold (p = 0.001–0.004; effect sizes r = 0.53–0.62). In the post-training observation, the mean LOKA-SRIKANDI implementation score was 88.41% ± 3.48%, and all 15 volunteers (100.0%) met the a priori benchmark of ≥75%; because no baseline observation was conducted, this describes post-training performance in simulated scenarios and does not indicate change. Feasibility indicators included 100% attendance and completion, and 98.5% adherence to the training protocol. Conclusion: SRIKANDI Model training was associated with short-term improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practical readiness among family companions and village health volunteers measured immediately after training, and appeared feasible to deliver in one rural village. These preliminary findings do not establish competency retention, changes in real-world emergency decision-making or referral behavior, or clinical impact. Controlled studies with longitudinal follow-up are needed to evaluate retention, real-world referral behavior, and maternal and neonatal outcomes.