A qualitative exploration of perinatal suicide
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative exploration of perinatal women’s and professionals’ experiences and perceptions of suicide during the perinatal period
IRAS ID
247604
Contact name
Anja Wittkowski
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
Suicide is the leading cause of direct maternal deaths occurring during pregnancy and up to a year after the end of pregnancy (perinatal period) in the UK and Ireland (Knight et al., 2017). The research will consist of two work streams.
Work stream 1 - The paucity of qualitative exploration of women’s experiences of feeling suicidal during the perinatal period and the need to better identify and support perinatal women at risk of suicide justify our proposal of a grounded theory study that will involve interviewing women who feel or have felt suicidal during the perinatal period.Furthermore, health care professionals that work with perinatal women experiencing mental health difficulties may offer important insights into how women at risk of suicide are currently identified and supported, and how this can be improved.
Work stream 2 – In order to gain a holistic perspective of how professionals currently identify women at risk of perinatal suicide, prevent suicide from occurring in this group of women, and how these practices could be improved, a thematic analysis study is proposed. This study will involve interviewing a varied group of professionals that work directly with perinatal women who feel suicidal.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0849
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion