Does a 6-week postpartum intervention impact psychosocial outcomes at 6-months? A follow-up of the ‘Essential Coaching for Every Mother’ randomized controlled trial (Preprint)

Abstract

Essential Coaching for Every Mother is a text message program that positively improved parenting self-efficacy and reduced postpartum anxiety when measured immediately after intervention at 6-weeks postpartum. However, it is unknown whether a short-term postpartum intervention can have impacts after it ended.

To compare parenting self-efficacy, postpartum anxiety and depression symptoms, and perceived social support at 6-months postpartum for mothers in the Essential Coaching for Every Mother trial.

Participants (n=150) were randomized to Essential Coaching for Every Mother or control (usual care). Data were collected on parenting self-efficacy (primary outcome), postpartum anxiety symptoms, postpartum depressive symptoms, and perceived social support at enrollment, 6-weeks postpartum, and 6-months postpartum. Data were analyzed using ANCOVAs and chi square analysis.

139 women completed the primary outcome at 6-months and 133 completed secondary outcomes. Mothers in the intervention group had higher postpartum anxiety scores (M=106.71, SD=20.93) than mothers in the control group (M=99.48, SD=19.25), p=0.012. In the chi square analysis comparing the proportion of participants who had clinically high scores between the control and intervention group, there was a significant difference for both postpartum anxiety and depression. More mothers in the intervention group had high postpartum anxiety scores (45.6%) and postpartum depression scores (22.1%) than mothers in the control group (23.5%, p<0.006 and 8.8%, p<0.03, respectively).

Early trial differences between groups were not maintained at 6-months postpartum, and more mothers in the intervention group clinically high postpartum anxiety and depression scores than mothers in the control. Future work is needed to understand whether a longer period of intervention would be helpful to maintain early impacts on psychosocial outcomes and what other factors can be attributed to this difference.

ClincialTrials.gov NCT04730570

RR2-10.2196/27138