How effective is the early support program Babylotse-Plus for psychosocially burdened mothers and their infants? A comparative intervention study

• Published in: Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 14
• Main Authors: Klapp, Christine, Fisch, Silvia, Keller, Theresa, Stasun, Ulrike, Nazmy, Nurina, Hohmann, Cynthia, Hinkson, Larry, Henrich, Wolfgang, Bergmann, Karl E, Bergmann, Renate L, Keil, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 22-08-2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Child abuse & neglect; Child care; Child welfare; Childhood mental disorders; Depression (Mood disorder); Early support; Epidemiology; Families & family life; Family; Infants; Intervention; Intervention study; Maternal & child health; Maternal depression; Mental depression; Mother-child relations; Mothers; Parenting; Postnatal depression; Postpartum depression; Prevention; Psychological aspects; Risk factors; Sex crimes; Stress (Psychology); Studies; Parenting Stress Index; Prevention; Psychosocial risk; Intervention study; Maternal depression; Postnatal depression; Early support; Child welfare; Infants
• DOI: 10.1186/s40748-019-0109-5
• EISSN: 2054-958X

Our aim was to examine the effects of an early perinatal prevention program offered to mothers and families suffering from significant psychosocial burden.
All mothers giving birth in a Berlin university hospital during Jan-Aug 2013 were screened with a standardized 27-item questionnaire by trained staff. Mothers with a screening-score ≥ 3, who were not enrolled in other public support programs, were defined as psychosocially burdened. They received a detailed needs assessment and were followed up with counseling. When necessary, affected mothers were voluntarily guided through to specialized 'early support' institutions during the 12-month-intervention period. The historical control group (care-as-usual) consisted of children born at the same hospital the year before.At 12 months postnatally, we interviewed mothers in both groups to assess their stress burden and coping skills by Parenting Stress Index and assessed the current childcare condition. Differences between the groups were compared by multivariable logistic regression analyses adjusting for potential confounders.
The intervention group and the control group included 225 and 157 families, respectively. After 12-months, mothers in the 'early support' intervention group had significantly less often depression (adjusted odds ratio 0.25, 95%-confidence interval 0.07-0.94), less often a disturbed relationship with the parenting partner (0.34, 0.10-1.14) and reported reduced stress due to the child's demands (0.40, 0.15-1.10) compared to the control group. Childcare indicators did not differ between the 2 groups.
In mothers at high psychosocial risk, the 'early support' intervention program
seemed to reduce the occurrence of depression and several stress indicators in the first postnatal year.