Hawaiian-style "talkstory": psychosocial assessment and intervention during and after pregnancy.

Standard health care services generally limit the psychosocial assessment and management provided for women during and after pregnancy. Recommendations for improving prenatal care include the need for evaluating different approaches for addressing culturally sensitive care. In an innovative prenatal and postpartum program developed by public health nurses in Hawaii, the use of local "talkstory" has been integrated successfully as a caregiving strategy for participating women from Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups. This article describes the use of talkstory for delivering psychosocial care and its application in the design of health care services for pregnant women in the general population.