Anyone who has been pregnant or lived with a pregnant woman knows the kaleidoscope of emotions that can lead up to the day of delivery and fill the weeks that follow. This major life transition can bring not only dizziness, but also stress, anxiety and depression.
Today, two researchers from Marquette’s Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences — Dr. Kimberly D’Anna-Hernandezassociate professor of psychology, and Dr Sabirat Rubyaassistant professor at Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute – are working with campus colleagues to develop new ways to support perinatal mental health.
Their community-focused research projects are especially needed in Milwaukee, which is battling vast racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and child health. A parent’s mental health during pregnancy and beyond can affect the baby’s health in many ways.
“Women who experience depression during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to premature babies and low birth weight babies. And those are the two biggest risk factors for illness — physical or mental,” says D’Anna-Hernandez, who directs the Perinatal Health Cultural Lab at Marquette. “They are obviously more likely to have postpartum depression, and that interferes with the mother-infant bond.”
Strengthening efforts to prevent perinatal depression
D’Anna Hernandez and colleagues are developing an interdisciplinary perinatal depression prevention program with three goals: strengthening an existing intervention to make it more culturally relevant, expanding the perinatal mental health workforce through training, and forming a collaborative group in perinatal mental health to gather resources. and make it easier for new and future parents to access support. The project is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act through a $250,000 grant administered by the Medical College of Wisconsin.
The project’s principal investigator is Dr. Kavitha Venkateswaran, clinical assistant professor of counseling education and counseling psychology in the College of Education. Dr. Lisa Edwards, professor and director of training in counseling psychology, and Dr. Karen Robinson, associate professor of nursing, are also collaborators.
“If we can prevent or reduce mental health problems during pregnancy, we will likely start to see some of these health outcomes improve as well, for both mother and child.”
Dr. Kavitha Venkateswaran
“We’re all very interested in perinatal mental health, particularly among women of color and women from marginalized backgrounds,” says D’Anna-Hernandez, who brings expertise in behavioral neuroscience and mental health disparities perinatal in the Latinx population of Milwaukee.
Up to 80% of mothers develop what are commonly called “baby blues” within two weeks of giving birth, and 1 in 7 mothers experience this condition progressing to postpartum depression. Although it gets less attention, depression during pregnancy is also common, especially among women of color. D’Anna-Hernandez’s research found that Mexican and Mexican-American women are three times more likely to experience depression during pregnancy than the general population.
Early intervention can be transformational for both expectant parents and babies. “After the baby arrives, it’s much more difficult to develop the skills and tools needed to start making changes in your life. Often at this stage, stress is so high that people are sleep deprived,” notes Venkateswaran. “If we can prevent or reduce mental health problems during pregnancy, we will likely start to see some of these health outcomes improve as well, for both mother and child.”
The team plans to adapt and augment an existing perinatal prevention program – known as Reach Out, Stay Strong, Essentials for mothers of new-borns, or ROSE – developed at Michigan State University. The evidence-based program can be delivered by any healthcare professional, not just mental health clinicians.
To make the program even more accessible, Marquette researchers plan to add a telehealth option and make the content more culturally relevant for mothers of diverse backgrounds.
The team will include a doula nurse and a physiotherapist. And the program will cover issues that can worsen mothers’ depression and anxiety — from breastfeeding to lack of sleep to pelvic floor issues after childbirth. By making the program more comprehensive, researchers hope to reach more expectant and pregnant women who may not traditionally consider themselves in need of mental health support.
Once the team has finished developing program content, it will gather feedback from partner clinics and community members. Local clinics could use this intervention with expectant parents as early as next summer.
By working with the partners in this broad community collaboration, says D’Anna-Hernandez, “we can see what their concerns are, what are the things they want to know that we can help support and amplify together on a one-to-one basis.” of equality. the partners.”
Using technology to facilitate social support
In Computer Science, Rubya is working on a project that explores how new and expectant mothers turn to online communities for support. She began by reviewing the literature and interviewing pregnant women and those who had just given birth.
“We learned that social support is really important. They need support from their spouse, family and friends, as well as other peers who have had similar experiences,” says Rubya, co-director of Marquette’s Social and Ethical Computing Lab. “So we also wanted to know: what are their sources of social support or what are the barriers?
Online social support, especially when anonymous, can feel safer for people from marginalized communities, she notes. Women expressed reluctance to seek support for their mental health issues through traditional channels, fearing that if their providers knew about these issues, their children would be taken from them.
With the help of graduate student Farhat Tasnim Progga, Rubya explored online support communities for postpartum depression on the websites Reddit, BabyCenter, and What to Expect. She particularly noticed the power of storytelling, both in recounting trauma and sharing successes. But existing online communities face their own challenges: misinformation or conflicting advice, toxic interactions, and a lack of rapid response when someone faces a mental health crisis.
“If I can reduce the stigma even just a little bit, that would be a big success. »
Dr Sabirat Rubya
Rubya plans to develop an app that will combine storytelling – using artificial intelligence to generate characters that resonate with users from different backgrounds – with educational content on topics such as baby sleep, breastfeeding and various potential stressors. Its goal is to create content that respects users’ privacy while providing more reliable and faster support than you might find on a giant discussion forum.
She hopes to have a prototype ready within six months, then will conduct an evaluation study, in partnership with D’Anna-Hernandez, to get feedback from new and expectant Milwaukee parents. She is grateful for this expected collaboration and for the help of colleagues in the department who are experts in artificial intelligence. “Whenever I need help, I have colleagues who can help me where I lack expertise,” she says.
Ultimately, Rubya would love to see her work expand beyond the United States. In her native Bangladesh, she notes, families often hide their mental health problems instead of seeking treatment. “It’s a very sensitive subject out there,” she said. “If I can reduce the stigma even just a little bit, that would be a big success. »
Partnering for greater impact
When faced with a problem as complex as perinatal mental health, interdisciplinary approaches are valuable. This makes Klingler College well-suited for this type of research, professors note. “I found the barriers between departments to be very low, which makes collaboration ideal,” says D’Anna-Hernandez. “That spirit of really moving everyone forward and especially doing things for the community – that’s a strong element of what I’ve seen in my collaborators in the arts and sciences.”
Rubya echoes this sentiment, and this spirit extends to all colleges as well. Venkateswaran believes that interdisciplinary expertise “makes our work stronger because we all have a different point of view and can provide that diverse perspective.”
And it’s promising for the future of perinatal mental health in Milwaukee and beyond. D’Anna-Hernandez says, “I really see this collaboration as just the beginning of…where we can go and take this work.” »
