RecruitingNot ApplicableNCT05830266

Mother-infant Bonding in the Brain: a Mindfulness-based Intervention

Mother-infant Bonding in the Brain: Promoting Maternal Mental Health and High-quality Mother-infant Interactions Via a Mindfulness-based Intervention

Sponsor

Tilburg University

Enrollment

64 participants

Start Date

Jul 1, 2023

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Conditions

Parental Stress Postpartum Depression Postpartum Anxiety

Summary

The study investigates the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based intervention "Mindful with your Baby" in women with babies between 5-9 months postpartum who experience heightened levels of postpartum depression, anxiety and/or parental stress. The intervention "Mindful with your Baby" is one of the very few interventions for maternal postnatal mental health issues that takes the bond between mother and infant into account. It is hypothesized that the "Mindful with your Baby" intervention will reduce levels of postpartum depression, anxiety and parental stress, and improve mother-infant behavioral interaction and increase neural synchrony between mother and infant brains.

Eligibility

Sex: FEMALEMin Age: 18 Years

Inclusion Criteria4

Pregnant women (18+y).
First antenatal visit \< 12 weeks.
Score above cut off on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the anxiety subscale of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and/or the Parental Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) at 8-10 weeks postpartum.
Dutch-speaking or understanding Dutch.

Exclusion Criteria7

Gemelli pregnancy (or higher order pregnancy).
Known endocrine disorder before pregnancy (diabetes-I, Rheumatoid arthritis).
Severe psychiatric disease (schizophrenia, borderline or bipolar disorder).
HIV.
Drug or alcohol addiction problems.
Any other disease resulting in treatment with drugs that are potentially adverse for the fetus and need careful follow-up during pregnancy.
No access to the internet.

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL"Mindful with your baby" self-guided online intervention

This 8-sessions long intervention includes the following sessions: "Autopilot", "Fresh view", "At home in your body", "Responsive versus reactive parenting", "Kindness to yourself", "Distance and proximity", "Boundaries and taking care of yourself" and "Mindful parenting - day by day". The intervention is an individual self-guided online intervention.

BEHAVIORAL"Mindful with your Baby" group-based therapist-guided intervention

This 8-sessions long intervention is one of very few interventions that actively includes the baby in the therapy sessions. The intervention includes the following sessions: "Becoming aware of the autopilot", "Practice to really look at your baby", "Getting back in touch with yourself", "Responding sensitively to your baby", "Taking care of yourself in the difficult moments", "Distance and proximity: it's both part of it", "Dealing with expectations of yourself and the environment" and "Mindful parenting: trial and error". The intervention is a group-based therapist-guided intervention via a video-conferencing tool (e.g., Zoom).