Marine DUBREUCQ, PhD student
"How to improve peripartum mental health care?": results of the LENA participatory research
Background: The improvement of peripartum mental health is a major public health concern. However, peripartum mental health disorders remain often undetected, undiagnosed and untreated leading to negative outcomes for the parent-baby triad.
Objectives: To guide the design of optimal peripartum mental health care (i.e. person-centered care co-produced with persons with lived experience (PLEs)), this qualitative participatory study explored the experiences, views and expectations of PLEs, obstetric providers (OP), childcare health providers (CHPs) and mental health providers (MHPs).
Methods: Participatory qualitative research (LENA project: "How to improve perinatal depression care?") conducted between December 2020 and May 2022 and thematic analysis by a multidisciplinary research tem (midwife, psychiatrist, child and adolescent psychiatrist, and a person with lived experience).
Results: Data saturation (code saturation and meaning saturation) was obtained after 24 individual interviews and 9 focus groups (n=84 participants). The thematic analysis generated four super ordinate themes: 1) towards deep changes in the socio-cultural conception of the peripartum, e.g. from infant-centered care to family-centered care; 2) challenging stigma, e.g. integrating PMH into standard peripartum care; 3) empowerment and personal recovery, e.g. shared decision making, taking into account of mothers' experience; 4) from a fragmented service provision towards graduated joint parent-baby care (e.g, development of a common culture between perinatal providers and mental health providers)
Conclusion: This analysis generated novel insights to guide the development of optimal peripartum mental health care.
Keywords: participatory research; peripartum mental health disorders; personal recovery; stigma; healthcare improvement
