Care from health visitors trained in psychological intervention methods may prevent depression in mothers not depressed 6 weeks postnatally
- 1Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
- 2The National Suicide Research Foundation, Cork, Ireland
- Correspondence to Patricia Leahy-Warren
Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, University College Cork, Ireland; patricia.leahy{at}ucc.ie
Implications for practice and research
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▪ Nurses and midwives who provide postnatal care need to receive training in identification and psychological intervention methods to prevent depression.
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▪ They will need to provide more visits to all mothers within the first 12-month postdelivery.
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▪ Further randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in this area should utilise midwives/health visitors (HVs) as the administrators of the intervention.
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▪ They should also seek control for the increased number of contacts associated with interventions of this nature.
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▪ There is a need for further RCTs in postnatal care to disentangle the effects of perceived support, the therapeutic relationship and the psychological intervention.
Context
Approximately 13% of mothers …
