Mothers and Babies Online Course: Participant Characteristics and Behaviors in a Web-Based Prevention of Postpartum Depression Intervention

Abstract

Despite the availability of evidence-based postpartum depression (PPD) prevention and treatment interventions, perinatal persons continue to suffer. eHealth and mHealth tools to address mental health issues have grown exponentially, especially given the ubiquity of technology and the increased demand for telemental health resources. The Mothers and Babies Online Course (eMB), an 8-lesson prevention of PPD intervention, was digitally adapted to expand the reach of evidence-based interventions to perinatal persons with limited access to maternal mental health resources. This report describes the characteristics, behaviors, and feedback provided by users of the updated eMB website. Two hundred eight predominantly English-speaking U.S. residents enrolled in the eMB. Thirty-seven percent were either pregnant (n = 38) or postpartum (n = 39) women interested in learning skills to manage changes in their mood during and after pregnancy; 63% were health providers (n = 131) interested in learning how to support their patient communities. Seventy-six percent (n = 159) viewed at least one of the eight eMB lessons, with 50.9% exclusively viewing Lesson 1. Few (4.4%) viewed all eight lessons. The lessons were rated favorably on usefulness and understanding. Perinatal women engaged with interactive content at higher rates than health providers. Examining user behaviors and feedback is an essential developmental step before empirically testing the efficacy of digital tools. Future iterations of the eMB will incorporate these preliminary findings to provide perinatal persons with accessible web-based interventions that will hopefully reduce the incidence and negative consequences of postpartum depression.

Feasibility and acceptability of an online mental health intervention for pregnant women and their partners: a mixed method study with a pilot randomized control trial

“…The previously developed eMB is an online, asynchronous, self-administered intervention modeled after the efficacious and in-person Mothers and Babies Course [ 29 – 31 , 37 ]. The course promotes its use by those in key support roles (e.g., partners, family, friends) to the pregnant person to increase understanding of PMADs and therapeutic approaches to managing associated symptoms [ 30 , 37 ].…”

“…Engaging the pregnant person and their partner as a dyad in perinatal studies complicates recruitment, retention, adherence, and longitudinally measuring change; key aspects of intervention feasibility [ 27 , 28 ]. After gaining permission for use and obtaining access to a complete copy of the programming from the developers [ 29 – 31 ], this pilot study engaged pregnant couples experiencing elevated symptoms of maternal anxiety or depression with an existing online psychoeducation intervention, the Mothers and Babies Online Course (eMB). The study had three primary aims to assess overall feasibility; 1) explore the feasibility of delivering eMB to couples by assessing recruitment, retainment, and adherence, 2) examine eMB's preliminary efficacy for reducing PMAD symptoms, and 3) describe participants' satisfaction and perceptions about eMB acceptability.…”

“…This study and intervention with couples was based on the Mothers and Babies Online Course (eMB) [ 29 , 31 ], created by Dr. Alinne Barrera and can be found at www.eMB.health and i4Health [ 29 , 31 ].…”