Infant Feeding and Mental Health
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Infant Feeding in the Context of Mental Health Problems.
IRAS ID
302881
Contact name
Natasha Baker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Perinatal severe mental illness (SMI) includes conditions such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and severe depression, during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year. For several reasons, infant feeding can be particularly challenging for women with SMI and many women decide against breastfeeding due to concerns about their medication, the need to maintain sleep and wanting to reduce stress in the postnatal period. Very few prior studies have explored the infant feeding experiences and support needs of women with SMI and limited evidence in this area means that gaps in care remain unclear.
Infant feeding in the context of SMI is important because understanding how and why women with SMI feed their babies will help health care providers assess what infant feeding support women require.This study aims to answer the research question:
What are the infant feeding experiences and support needs of women with severe mental illness?Women who received care from a secondary mental health service (e.g. psychiatric inpatient services, community and perinatal mental health services and crisis resolution teams) in England during their pregnancy, or the first three months following childbirth will be eligible to take part in an interview about their experiences of infant feeding. Women will be eligible up to five years following childbirth.
Around 20 women from a range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds will be recruited through two mental health Trusts in England. Interviews will explore their experiences of infant feeding and their key support needs.
Interviews will either take place remotely or in person, dependent on participant preference and will last around an 1 hr. Interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Reflexive thematic analysis will be used to analyse the data for key themes.
This study will take place over one year.REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/LO/0879
Date of REC Opinion
21 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion