Peripartum depression is the most common complication associated with childbearing yet there are many barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Motherhood is an especially vulnerable time for Hispanic women who experience additional barriers that prevent them from seeking maternal mental health care. Due to these barriers, researchers have increased their interest in prevention. They have found that low social support is a modifiable risk factor with one of the strongest predictive values. Doulas are specifically trained to provide physical, social, and emotional support to mothers during pregnancy, labor, and/or postpartum periods. In this context they may be considered a powerful tool to lower barriers and improve maternal psychosocial wellbeing. However, significant limitations from prior studies have prevented the acceptance of using doulas routinely for at-risk mothers. By identifying and incorporating components of other successful social support interventions in my literature review, I hope to eliminate some of these limitations. This study will select participants with low social supports and other risk factors to be randomized into home-visiting doula intervention group or standard of care control group. Maternal mental health and perceived social support will be evaluated from the first trimester to 6 months postpartum. If there are significant differences between these groups, there is a potential to increase doula training and recruitment for prevention of postpartum depression for minorities. Hopefully the results will guide law makers to increase insurance coverage and guide practitioners to routinely offer doula services for at-risk mothers who need additional supports to receive adequate mental health care. Finally, I aim to increase the perceived value of doulas in the setting of improving maternal mental health/ social wellbeing and increase their acceptance within the medical community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/45725 |
| Date | 07 March 2023 |
| Creators | Contreras, Lineidys |
| Contributors | Weinstein, John, Abbott, Jodi F |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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