NCT02953626

Mother Matters Online Postpartum Support

Mother Matters: Pilot Randomized Waitlist Controlled Trial of an Online Postpartum Mental Health Support Group

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 96 (actual)
• Sponsor: Women's College Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Postpartum depression is common, yet only 20% of women seek treatment. Online support groups are a potential means of providing accessible mental health care during this time. Mother Matters is a 10-week online psychotherapy group for women with postpartum depression \& anxiety. The investigators aim to conduct a pilot RCT to demonstrate the feasibility of proceeding to a large-scale RCT evaluation of the Mother Matters intervention.

Detailed description

The postpartum period is a particularly vulnerable time for the development of mental health concerns; postpartum depression (i.e. depression with onset between 0-12 months postpartum) affects approximately 13% of mothers in Canada. There are serious negative consequences to both mother and child during this period, yet only 20% of women seek treatment, citing significant systematic and personal barriers. Online support groups have been identified as a potential means of providing accessible mental health care during this time. Mother Matters is a 10-week online support group for women with postpartum depression and anxiety, run trained psychotherapists in the Reproductive Life Stages (RLS) program at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. Mother Matters was designed to address barriers related to accessing postpartum mental health services: it can be accessed anywhere (online group), at any time (available 24/7), and with anonymity (to address the barrier of shame/stigma). The overall objective of the current pilot RCT is to determine the feasibility of conducting a large randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the group, comparing outcomes among those with and without access to the program.

Conditions

• Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mother Matters Online Postpartum Support Group	Mother Matters is a 10-week online support group for women with postpartum depression. It involves: 1) A private, online forum that can be accessed by participants 24-hours per day. During regular business hours (9:00 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays) it is moderated by a psychotherapist, and there is a weekly moderated "live" chat hour; 2) Weekly topics with readings are provided with questions to prompt discussion on the online forum. Topics incorporate symptom management (i.e. Interpersonal Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and affect regulation strategies (i.e. Mindfulness, DBT) with a supportive counselling approach. External resources related to each week's topic, are also shared.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-05-01
• Primary completion: 2017-03-01
• Completion: 2017-05-01
• First posted: 2016-11-03
• Last updated: 2017-05-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada