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Introduction
Publications
Publications (32)
Purpose
To explore the proportion and characteristics of women with a mental disorder who have contact with mental health services during pregnancy and the postnatal period in a maternity service in London.
Methods
Data from the WEll-being in pregNancy stuDY (WENDY), a prospective cohort study, were used. Women were recruited at their first appoin...
Background:
There is limited understanding of the drivers of increasing infant accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and emergency hospital admissions across England. We examine variations in use of emergency hospital services among infants by local areas in England and investigate the extent to which infant and socio-economic factors explain t...
Purpose
Lack of social support is considered a potential risk factor for postnatal depression but limited longitudinal evidence is available. Pregnancy, when women have increased contact with healthcare services, may be an opportune time to intervene and help strengthen women’s social networks to prevent feelings of depression postnatally, particul...
Background
Although the effectiveness of screening tools for detecting depression in pregnancy has been investigated, there is limited evidence on the cost-effectiveness. This is vital in providing full information to decision makers. This study aimed to explore the cost-effectiveness of different screening tools to identify depression in early pre...
Background
It is unclear how best to identify and treat women with mental disorders in pregnancy and the year after birth (i.e. the perinatal period).
Objectives
(1) To investigate how best to identify depression at antenatal booking [work package (WP) 1]. (2) To estimate the prevalence of mental disorders in early pregnancy (WP1). (3) To develop...
Background:
Understanding of drivers in increasing infant accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and emergency hospital admissions across England is limited. We examine variations in use of emergency hospital services among infants by local areas in England and investigate the extent to which infant and socio-economic factors explain these variat...
Background
Interpersonal traumas are common among expectant and new mothers and are found to have considerable impacts on women's mental health. These experiences may disrupt maternal perceptions of the mother-infant relationship, which is essential for healthy infant development, but findings are inconsistent. This study aims to explore associatio...
Fear of childbirth (FOC) is a common phenomenon that can impair functioning in pregnancy but potential longer term implications for the mother-infant relationship are little understood. This study was aimed at investigating postpartum implications of FOC on the mother-infant relationship. A UK sample of 341 women in a community setting provided dat...
Objectives
To estimate the population prevalence of severe fear of childbirth (FOC) during pregnancy and investigate its association with: (a) antenatal common mental disorders (depression and anxiety disorder) and (b) elective cesarean birth.
Methods
545 participants from an inner‐city London maternity population were interviewed soon after their...
In this study, we explore the role that isolation and loneliness play in the narratives of
women diagnosed with perinatal depression. Isolation and loneliness are increasingly seen as risk factors for depression, including in the perinatal period, but little is known about whether, and in what ways, women themselves associate isolation or lonelines...
Background/objective:
Perinatal mental health services are a current NHS priority and services are being increased for women. There is limited research on mothers' perspectives of these services and most research focuses on mother and baby units (MBUs). This study explored women's views of their experiences of generic wards, MBUs and crisis resolu...
Purpose
Maternal depression has been associated with bonding difficulties and lower maternal sensitivity in observed mother–infant interactions. However, little research has examined the impact of disordered personality traits in mothers on these outcomes. We investigated the association between disordered personality traits in mothers measured dur...
Background:
Infant mortality has been rising in England since 2014. We examined potential drivers of these trends.
Methods:
We used aggregate data on all live births, stillbirths and linked infant deaths in England in 2006-2016 from the Office for National Statistics. We compared trends in infant mortality rates overall, excluding births at <24...
This study aims to investigate the characteristics and mental health status of pregnant women with disordered personality traits. A cross-sectional study of a stratified sample of 545 women attending antenatal booking at a South London maternity service was conducted. Disordered personality traits were assessed using the Standardised Assessment of...
Objective:
To estimate prevalence of lifetime and current eating disorders (ED) in a sample of pregnant women in South-East London and to describe their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.
Method:
Secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional survey. Using a stratified sampling design, 545 pregnant women were recruited. Diagnostic...
Background
Although evidence suggests that the EuroQoL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) and Short Form-6 dimension (SF-6D) have equivalent psychometric properties in people with depression, there is some evidence that the EQ-5D may lack responsiveness in certain populations with depression.
Aims
To examine the psychometric properties of the five-level EQ-5D (E...
Objective:
The primary objective was to estimate the population prevalence of specific phobias (including pregnancy related specific phobias) and associated mental disorders. The secondary objective was to investigate the effectiveness of routinely collected screening tools (depression and anxiety screens, Whooley and GAD-2 respectively) in identi...
Background:
Depression is a common antenatal mental disorder associated with significant maternal morbidity and adverse fetal outcomes. However, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of psychological interventions for antenatal depression.
Methods:
A parallel-group, exploratory randomised controlled trial across...
Maternal mental disorders can significantly impact on children's psychosocial and psychological development, incurring substantial ongoing economic and personal costs. A key mediating mechanism is mother-infant relationship quality (MIRQ). Research studies and perinatal mental health screening initiatives have predominantly focused on depressive sy...
Objective:
To investigate the association between maternal self-harm (lifetime history of self-harm and self-harm ideation during pregnancy) and mother-infant interactions in a representative cohort from southeast London.
Methods:
Data were drawn from a prospective cohort of 545 women attending antenatal appointments between 2014 and 2016. Women...
Introduction:
Prenatal maternal anxiety disorders have been associated with adverse outcomes in offspring including emotional, behavioral and cognitive problems. There is limited understanding of the mechanisms underpinning these associations, although one possible candidate is an impaired mother-infant relationship. The authors investigated wheth...
Breinholst et al. explore the impact of parental behaviour and parent–child attachment on child anxiety disorders. They show that maternal variables did not predict child anxiety, while insecure attachment to the father was a significant contributor. But can we really say it's down to dad? The importance of including fathers in both research and cl...
Objective
To estimate the population prevalence of anxiety disorders during pregnancy and investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the two-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2) for a) GAD and b) any anxiety disorder.
Design
Cross-sectional survey using a stratified sampling design. Sampling weights were used in the analysis to adjust for t...
Although attachment plays a key role in children's socio-emotional development, little attention has been paid to the role of children's attachment to their father. This study examined whether insecure attachment to each parent was associated with reduced emotion understanding in children and whether children showed consistent attachments to their...
Depression in parents impairs parenting and increases the risk of psychopathology among their children. Prevention and intervention could be informed by knowledge of the mechanisms that break the inter-generational transmission of psychopathology and build resilience in both parents and their children. We used data from two independent studies to e...
Background
Increasing evidence suggests that postnatal paternal depression is associated with adverse emotional, behavioural and cognitive outcomes in children. Despite this, few studies have determined the prevalence of fathers’ depressive symptoms during the first few years of their children’s lives and explored what factors are related to these...
Background:
Paternal depressive symptoms are associated with children's emotional and behavioural problems, which may be mediated by negative parenting. But there is no research on the influence of paternal depressive symptoms on children's emotion regulation and limited literature investigating fathers' parenting as a mediator in the pathway betw...
Impaired parenting may lie on the causal pathway between paternal depression and children's outcomes. We use the first four surveys of the Millennium Cohort Study to investigate the association between paternal depressive symptoms and fathers' parenting (negative, positive and involvement). Findings suggest that postnatal paternal depressive sympto...