NCT03615261

Wellness For 2: A Feasibility and Acceptability Pilot

Promoting Healthy Brain Development Via Prenatal Stress Reduction: An Innovative Precision Medicine Approach: An Intervention Feasibility and Acceptability Pilot

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 17 (actual)
• Sponsor: Northwestern University · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The investigators are studying strategies and tools that women can use to manage stress and wellness during pregnancy. The purpose of this project is to test a technology-enhanced version of a wellness intervention for women during their pregnancy (the Mothers and Babies course; MB). The technology that the investigators will test includes wearable heart rate sensors, smartphone text message surveys, and intervention materials delivered through text message.

Detailed description

Perinatal "early life" stress (ELS) has significant consequences for mothers and their infants.(1-3) Prolonged prenatal stress places pregnant women at increased risk for depression, health risk behaviors, and poor overall health and quality of life. Likewise, fetal exposure to stress places infants at greater risk of neurodevelopmental disruptions.(4,5) Prior clinical trials led by co-PI Darius Tandon have demonstrated that pregnant women, particularly those in low income environments, demonstrate positive health and parenting benefits as a result of receiving prenatal stress reduction interventions.(6-8) The stress-reduction intervention proposed in the overarching Promoting Healthy Brains Project (PHBP), the Mothers and Babies course (MB), is a scalable, manualized evidence-based cognitive-behavioral intervention that can be adapted to meet client needs (e.g., setting, dose, timing, modality) without compromising fidelity. However, as there is substantial heterogeneity in maternal responsiveness to prenatal stress-reduction interventions, MB in its current form may be too low-intensity to improve fetal outcomes. Although a few studies have examined impact of interventions like MB on developmental outcomes, the extant evidence base does not provide strong support for intervention effects. Further, state-of-the-art neurodevelopmental methods have not been employed to detect how manipulation of early exposure to stress may effect brain:behavior patterns in early life. Advancing this is the overarching goal of the PHBP. A crucial component of the proposed work involves an enhanced version of the 12-session, one-on-one version of MB with 1) mindfulness training content; 2) inter-session text messages prompting skills reinforcement, self-monitoring, and homework reminders; 3) adaptive, real-time stress monitoring that will optimize the intervention by identifying the key point at which to deliver just-in-time stress intervention content to individual participants. The investigators will ask pregnant women to wear a long-wearing, unobtrusive wireless ECG sensor (BioStamp Research Connect; BioStamp). BioStamp sensor data will be used to detect physiological responses to stress (i.e., heart rate variability; HRV) to build a system that can be used to trigger real-time stress reduction intervention. BioStamp, a lightweight, rechargeable, and easy to use wearable device is equipped to passively and continuously measure HRV and motion. Unlike traditional "wired" ECG monitors, BioStamp can be worn under typical daily-living conditions (e.g., sleeping, showering, physical activity), with only minimal obtrusion in daily life (e.g., re-charging, re-applying adhesive). Led by PI Laurie Wakschlag, the overarching PBHP will harness multidisciplinary expertise from Northwestern's Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences (DevSci), Lurie Children's Hospital, Center for Community Health, McCormick School of Engineering, and Feinberg School of Medicine \& Northwestern Medicine (Ob/Gyn, Preventive Medicine, Medical Social Sciences, and Pediatrics) to 1) adapt and pilot MB enhanced with mindfulness training content, and just-in-time feedback to participants regarding their in-the-moment stress responses, and 2) experimentally test the effects of the optimized intervention on maternal wellbeing pre- and postnatally, and postnatal neurodevelopmental health trajectories.

Conditions

• Pregnancy
• Prenatal Stress

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mothers and Babies (Enhanced)	The course is a manualized stress-reduction intervention with an integrated tech suite designed for timely detection and response to stress. Based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy \& attachment theory, MB is divided into 3 sections: Pleasant Activities; Thoughts; Contact with Others. Each module has been enhanced with mindfulness as a strategy to help "center" participants and facilitate practice of skills. Participants receive skills training in each of the three sections as tools to improve and manage their mood. The MB course emphasizes developing \& strengthening the bond with the baby. The technology enhancement includes wearing a BioStamp sensor, and text message-based extra intervention content. Participants get worksheets linked to the 12 sessions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-07-30
• Primary completion: 2019-01-31
• Completion: 2021-01-31
• First posted: 2018-08-03
• Last updated: 2021-10-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States