THE WOMEN'S HEALTH STUDY
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing a perinatal mental health peer support intervention to address the needs of women with experience of intimate partner violence (IPV): a qualitative study
IRAS ID
331752
Contact name
Nadia Mantovani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 28 days
Research summary
Pregnancy and the time after having a baby are important for a mother's mental health. Sometimes, pregnant women and new mothers can have problems with their mental health. Some women feel even more stressed during pregnancy because their partner hurts them physically, sexually, or emotionally. This is called intimate partner violence. This violence also affects their children. National reports show that there is a strong link between perinatal violence and mental health difficulties. We know it is common and is underreported and that the number of women at risk of violence by a partner may be much higher. Not reporting violence can make the women’s mental health even worse. We do not know exactly how to help this group of women as there is not enough strong evidence to recommend any specific interventions. However, in recent years peer support has become an important part of maternity care, and research studies have shown that it can have a positive impact on maternal mood in the short term and reducing the risk of depression. Peer support is effective in preventing/treating perinatal depression compared to traditional methods. This project is about creating a program to help improve the mental health of women who have been through intimate partner violence during pregnancy and after giving birth. We propose to:
• Talk to women who have experienced intimate partner violence during pregnancy and after giving birth. We want to understand how it has affected their mental health and find out what helps and what makes it hard for them to get the care they need.
• Talk to healthcare professionals and specialist services who take care of women during the perinatal period. We want to hear their experiences of helping these women. We also want to learn about the things that make it easier or harder for them to provide care.
• Bring together a group of people, including service users, healthcare professionals, and others who are interested in this topic. We will work together to plan how to create the support program.
• We will work as a team to design the perinatal mental health peer support program and the materials that will be used in it.With these steps we hope to create a support program that can help these women to improve their mental health. Patient and public involvement is integral to this proposed work. We have conducted consultations for this proposal with a mother with relevant lived experiences which has shaped this proposal. We will seek further input from a Lived Experience Advisory Group consisting of five mothers from diverse backgrounds with lived experience relevant to our topic. They will assist with co-designing interview questions, helping make sense of the findings and producing dissemination materials.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
24/NS/0089
Date of REC Opinion
11 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion