View clinical trials related to Maternal Sensitivity.
Filter by:The aim of the project is to develop and evaluate an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial intervention targeting pregnant women with psychosocial vulnerabilities. The objective is to 1) detect depression, anxiety and personality disorders in the pregnant women, 2) to increase knowledge sharing across the health care sectors and 3) strengthen the parents' parenting skills and thereby support a secure attachment between parents and child and thus promoting the child's well-being. The overriding hypothesis is that an early multi-stringed, interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial intervention, with a long-term perspective from the early pregnancy throughout the child's first years of life, can effectively prevent disorders in the parent-child relation. The approach is to detect and treat depression, anxiety and personality disorders in the mother and strengthen the parents' parenting skills in families with maternal psychosocial vulnerabilities. The hypothesis indicates that the over-all intervention will result in improved interaction between child and parents which will make it possible to detect higher maternal sensitivity and a higher level of well-being among both children and parents in the intervention group compared to the control group. The projects' specific hypotheses are; - A systematic screening for anxiety, depression and personality disorders in the midwifery consultation will imply more pregnant women with symptoms of anxiety, depression and personality disorders being detected and offered treatment in the intervention group compared to the control group. - Knowledge sharing across health care sectors will improve by the implementation of a joint consultation involving the vulnerable pregnant woman/families, the midwife and the health visitor and by a systematic transmission of information when the woman leaves the post-natal ward and is transferred to the health visitor. - Parental skills in psychosocial vulnerable pregnant women and their partners can be strengthened by a parental training program and by education and dialogue about perceived challenges and breast-feeding. Parents in the intervention group will therefore gain greater knowledge on what it takes to make breast-feeding work successfully, be able to interact more appropriate with their children, and improve their mentalization skills and experience less stress compared to parents in the control group.
This is an efficacy study of an intensive home visitation intervention, "Minding the Baby" (MTB). This reflective parenting program (aimed at enhancing maternal reflective capacities), is focused on first-time young mothers and infants living in an urban community. The study, grounded in attachment and human ecology theories integrates advanced practice nursing and mental health care by pairing master's level nurse practitioners and social workers with at-risk young families. Aims of the study are: 1) to determine the efficacy of the MTB intervention in young mothers and infants with respect to a) maternal outcome variables including the quality of the mother-infant relationship, maternal reflective capacities, maternal mastery/self-efficacy, parental competence, and maternal health and life course outcomes (educational success, employment, delaying subsequent child-bearing); and b) infant outcome variables including early attachment, infant health, and developmental outcomes; 2) to monitor fidelity and dose of the program with young mothers; 3) to describe the evolution of reflective capacities in adolescent mothers (contrasting intervention group with control group) through descriptive qualitative analyses of transcribed Pregnancy Interviews and Parent Development Interviews at the last trimester of pregnancy and at 24 months; 4) to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses of the program. The longitudinal two-group study (subjects nested within randomly assigned groups), will include multi-method (self report, interview and direct observation and coding of behaviors) approaches with a cohort of first-time multi-ethnic mothers between the ages of 14-25 (and their infants). MTB home visits occur weekly for intervention families (n=69) beginning in mid pregnancy and continuing through the first year, and then bi-weekly through the second year. Mothers and infants (n=69) in the control group will receive standard prenatal, postpartum and pediatric primary care in one of two community health centers (as will the intervention group) and also receive monthly educational materials about child health and development mailed to their homes. Maternal and infant outcome variables will be followed over time (pregnancy, 4, 12, and 24 months) as well as compared between the 2 groups. Cost analyses and analysis of the dose and sample characteristics linked to efficacy, will allow us to plan for translation of the model into clinical care and community sustainability.