Peer support for Mothers with Antenatal Depression version 1.

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Peer support intervention for antenatal women who have been identified as being depressed.

  • IRAS ID

    226165

  • Contact name

    Ruth Carter

  • Contact email

    ruth.carter@staffs.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Professor Nachi Chockalingam

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 6 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    The Primary objective of this research is to ascertain what effect an intervention- a peer support visit (peer supporters are people who have experienced a similar event/ill health as the participants but are recovered, they are not normally health care professionals) for one hour a week, for six weeks has upon the mood of pregnant women, in the antenatal period. The main outcome hoping to be achieved long term, is the reduction in the severity of antenatal depression and, possibly, subsequently reduce the incidence of postnatal depression.

    To find out whether there is any impact on mental health this research intends to make comparisons. The study intends to do this by offering a group of pregnant women (the intervention group), identified by their community midwife as depressed, through the routine use of a screening tool (the whooley questionnaire) as part of an assessment of mental health status, a weekly visit for six weeks from a Peer Support Worker (PSW). This group will then be compared with a group of mothers also identified by the community midwife as depressed through the use of the same routine screening tool (the Whooley questionnaire). The control group will be provided with the regular antenatal care that is currently available. Each participant/mother will be placed into either group by random number selection.
    On completion of the six visits the participants of both groups will be contacted by a member of the research team. The intended purpose of this contact is to explore how the support visits went, and for the Whooley questionnaire to be repeated. A member of the research team will then contact participants from both the intervention and the control group, at six weeks postnatally and then six months postnatally to conduct a semi structured interview and to repeat the Whooley questionnaire.

  • REC name

    West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    17/WM/0202

  • Date of REC Opinion

    9 Jun 2017

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion