Experience of partners of mothers who have been admitted to an MBU
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Perinatal Mental Health: exploring the needs and experience of partners of mothers who have been admitted to a psychiatric inpatient Mother and Baby Unit in England with their infant.
IRAS ID
223839
Contact name
Ian Noonan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 28 days
Research summary
Inpatient mother and baby psychiatric units offer a specialist service and admit mothers with serious mental illness during late pregnancy or in the postpartum period with their babies. These unique units allow the mother and baby to remain together and provide mental health treatment and support in looking after their baby. Perinatal mental illness often presents as an emergency and can occur for mothers with no previous psychiatric history. This can be very distressing for the whole family.
There has been limited research on the impact of a mother and baby admission on partners. This study aims to look at the partner’s perspective of the mother’s care and gain further information on how the admission has affected partners personally. Previous research has focused on the father’s experience but this study wanted to address the partner’s experience as the partner may not be the biological father of the child. It is felt the partner has an influential role in supporting the mother and the researcher didn’t want to exclude female partners or partners who aren’t the biological parent of the child. Participants in this study need to be the current partner of the woman irrespective of gender or parental status. The study will be conducted using an online questionnaire which will be advertised across the Mother and Baby units in England. The questionnaire comprises of three parts: patient outcome experience measure (POEM), questions from the Royal College of Psychiatrists Perinatal Quality Network and other questions devised from previous research.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0370
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion