Perspectives of Care Related to the Parent-Infant Relationship
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Parent perspectives on care for the parent-infant relationship in Perinatal Mental Health Services
IRAS ID
346394
Contact name
Kyla Vaillancourt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
Perinatal Mental Health Services (PMHS) support families before and after birth when a mother experiences a moderate-severe mental health problem. PMHS aim to help parents improve their mental health and develop positive relationships with their baby by offering specific therapies. A problem for services is that PMHS do not measure the quality of parent-infant interaction which would help to guide what therapies are offered, evaluate treatments and prevent potential inequities in those who are offered parent-infant therapies.
In research settings, measures of parent-infant interaction involve filming a brief observation of a mother and baby together, but there are problems with using these measures in clinical services. One problem is that we do not know how acceptable these measures are to parents receiving care from PMHS. These measures also take too much time for clinicians to use them, and it is unclear how best to use them as part of clinical care. This application pertains to one component of a larger research programme being conducted as part of a Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship which involves 3 related work packages (WPs) to generate evidence relating to the feasibility, acceptability and implementation of an observational measure of parent-infant interaction in PMHS.
This application relates to WP2 which is focused on acceptability. The purpose of WP2 is to explore parent’s current experience of PMH care as it relates to their relationship their baby and their views on how care could be improved, including the potential use of an observational measure of parent-infant interaction as part of care.
The design of WP2 is qualitative, involving semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of approximately 20 women who are receiving care from two PMHS in England, and their family members.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
24/WA/0349
Date of REC Opinion
18 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion