The midwife's support during transition to motherhood: A modified Delphi study among care providers and childbearing women.

OBJECTIVE: To reach consensus between care providers and childbearing women about the midwife's relevant and appropriate domains and elements to support transition to motherhood. METHODS: A modified web-based Delphi study was conducted in Flanders (Belgium). After performing a systematic literature review, searching the grey literature and an online poll, a set of 79 items was generated. In two rounds, the items were presented to an expert panel of (1) care providers from various disciplines providing services to childbearing women and (2) to pregnant women and postpartum women up to 1-year postpartum. Consensus was defined when 70% or more of the experts scored ≥6, 5% or less scored ≤3, and a standard deviation of ≤1.1. FINDINGS: In the first Delphi round, 91 experts reached consensus on 24 items. Seventeen round one items that met one or two consensus objectives were included in round two and were scored by 64 panel experts, reaching consensus on three additional items. The final 27 items covered seven domains: attributes, liaison, management of care from a woman-centred perspective, management of care from the midwife's focus, informational support, relational support, and the midwife's competencies. CONCLUSION: The shared understanding between childbearing women and care providers shows that the midwife's transitional support is multifaceted. Our findings offer midwives a standard of care, criteria, guidance, and advice on how they can support childbearing women during transition to motherhood, beyond the existing recommendations and current provision of transitional care.

On cloud nine? Maternal emotional wellbeing six weeks up to one year postpartum - A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the full scope of emotional wellbeing of mothers up to one year postpartum, to adequately support women during transition to motherhood. Reduced emotional wellbeing (REW) affects women's adaption to the changes and challenges in becoming a mother. We aimed to increase the knowledge and understanding of mothers' emotional wellbeing and the influencing factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study includes 385 Flemish mothers up to one year postpartum. Online data were collected with the General Health Questionnaire-12, Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire, Personal Well-Being Index-Adult, The Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Sense of Coherence-13 and Coping Operations Preference Enquiry. RESULTS: A total of 63.9% of the participants reported REW. Mothers with REW more often had (a history of) psychological problems compared to mothers with healthy emotional wellbeing (p = 0.007). Multiple linear regression analysis showed negative associations between emotional wellbeing and satisfaction (p = 0.002; p < 0.001), comprehensibility (p = 0.013) and positive associations between emotional wellbeing and bonding (p < 0.001), manageability (p = 0.033), problem solving (p = 0.030) and avoidance (p = 0,011) - with an explained variance of 55.5%. LIMITATIONS: Some limitations of our study are the GHQ-12 cut-off value, the nature and implication of (a history of) psychological problems and the self-selected population. CONCLUSION: It would be of worth for midwives to discuss with mothers (to be) what to expect. This - to support mothers in making sense of their life as a mother and how various factors might influence their emotional wellbeing. The high prevalence of REW is worrying, but needs to be interpreted with caution.

Systematic Review of the Content Validity of Patient Reported Outcome Measures of Transition to Parenthood.

This review aims to identify self-report instruments examining aspects of transition to parenthood for use in practice and research. After performing a literature search in Embase, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane, PsycINFO and Google Scholar, the Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) measuring (aspects of) transition to parenthood during pregnancy or up to 1-year postpartum were identified. Following COSMIN guidelines for systematic reviews on PROMs, the quality of the PROM development and PROM content validity was evaluated. From the 129 included studies, 39 PROMs assessed aspects of transition to parenthood. A total of 32 PROMs were included in the evaluation. The development quality of 30/32 PROMS was mostly rated as inadequate and the quality of 15 content validity studies was mostly rated as doubtful. All PROMs received inadequate or doubtful ratings on content validity. Most of the PROMs measuring aspects of the transition to parenthood didn't include parents' points of view when developing them. Many PROMs are being used for a long time without reassessing relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility among parents and/or practitioners. It is recommended that researchers and healthcare professionals assess content validity of the PROM before use with the target population.

The validation of the brief COPE in a belgian perinatal population.

INTRODUCTION: The Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief-COPE) measures individuals' coping strategies. There is limited evidence on the psychometric properties of this measure in a perinatal population. The aim of this study is to explore the psychometric properties of the Brief COPE in pregnant and postpartum women. METHODS: The Dutch/Flemish version of the Brief-COPE was administrated in a sample of 754 antenatal (n = 432) and postpartum (n = 322) women living in Belgium. Exploratory factor analyses assessed the factor structure of the Brief-COPE and its convergent validity in an antenatal and postpartum sample. Cronbach's alpha was calculated for internal consistency reliability of the Brief-COPE items. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis showed a five-factor antenatal model, presented by the subscales: (1) Active coping (α = 0.86), (2) Self-blame and Disengagement (α = 0.70), (3) Alcohol use (α = 0.96), (4) Humour (α = 0.79), and (5) Spirituality (α = 0.81). For the postpartum sample, a three-factor model emerged, presented by the subscales: (1) Active coping (α = 0.85), (2) Self-blame (α = 0.85) and (3) Spirituality (α = 0.74). CONCLUSIONS: We observed differences and similarities in coping strategies between antenatal and postpartum women - information to be of merit for clinical practice and research. The Brief-COPE is a promising tool for the use of identifying women's coping strategies during pregnancy and the postpartum period, specifically for women in a similar cultural context as the women in this study, mainly in terms of antenatal alcohol use.

Psychological health of pregnant and postpartum women before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to influence psychological health of pregnant and postpartum women. METHODS: We conducted a non-concurrent cross-sectional study among 1145 women living in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, 541 pregnant and 604 postpartum women. We measured psychological health with the Whooley questions, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and compared the scores of pregnant and postpartum women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: No differences were observed in the Whooley, GAD-2 or EPDS scores among pregnant women. The postpartum total GAD-2 scores before vs during the pandemic showed significant differences. Controlling for confounders, we observed a small main positive effect of having an infant during time of COVID-19 (F(1.13) = 5.06, p.025, d.27). The effect was significantly larger for women with (a history of) perinatal psychological problems (F(1.12) = 51.44, p < .001, d.82). Emotional support was significantly related to GAD-2 scores of postpartum women during the pandemic (F(1.90) = 35.54, p < .001). Postpartum women reported significant higher effects of the pandemic on their behavior compared to pregnant women (p.034). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have a positive effect on postpartum women during the first year postpartum, in particular for women with (a history of) perinatal psychological problems and for those women who experienced emotional support. The findings suggest that less external stimuli caused by lockdown restrictions might have a positive effect on postpartum women's emotional wellbeing. The sample consisted of white, educated women in a relationship and information regarding the extent of exposure to adverse COVID-19 consequences was lacking. We relied on self-selection and self-report. The postpartum pandemic sample was small.

Flemish midwives' perspectives on supporting women during the transition to motherhood - A Q-methodology study.

OBJECTIVE: In this study we aimed to reveal midwives' distinct perspectives about midwifery support of women in their transition process during the continuum from pregnancy to one-year postpartum. DESIGN: A Q-methodology study, a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach, was conducted. Participants (P-set) rank-ordered 36 statements (Q-set) about how midwives provide support during the woman's transition to motherhood, followed by interviews to motivate their ranking. To extract the perspectives/factors on support during this transition process, centroid by-person factor analysis and varimax rotation was used. The transcripts of the interviews were interpreted per factor. SETTING: Independent (self-employed) and employed, community and hospital-based practising midwives in Flanders, Belgium. PARTICIPANTS: 83 practicing midwives participated, selected on: variation in practice setting, years of experience, views on the woman's domestic role in family life, and motherhood status. FINDINGS: Two distinct perspectives (factors) on supporting women in transition to motherhood emerged. The job-focused midwife acts according to evidence, knowledge and guidelines and adheres to the scope and tasks within the professional profile (Factor 1). The woman-focused midwife acts within a relationship of trust emphasizing the one-on-one connection while supporting transition to motherhood and the woman's needs (Factor 2). Both factors showed an explained total variance of 59% of the Q-set. KEY CONCLUSIONS: Both the job-focused midwife and the woman-focused midwife represent distinct perspectives about the midwife's execution of supporting transition to motherhood, including salotugenic elements. This provides an understanding of midwives' thoughts and experiences about why and how support is given. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: More awareness about the subjective distinct ways of thinking about supporting transition to motherhood should be integrated in practice, midwifery education and professional development.

Redesign and operation of the National Home And Hospice Care Survey, 2007.

OBJECTIVES: This methods report provides an overview of the redesigned National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) conducted in 2007. NHHCS is a national probability sample survey that collects data on U.S. home health and hospice care agencies, their staffs and services, and the people they serve. The redesigned survey included computerized data collection, greater survey content, increased sample sizes for current home health care patients and hospice care discharges, and a first-ever supplemental survey called the National Home Health Aide Survey. METHODS: The 2007 NHHCS was conducted between August 2007 and February 2008. NHHCS used a two-stage probability sampling design in which agencies providing home health and/or hospice care were sampled. Then, up to 10 current patients were sampled from each home health care agency, up to 10 discharges from each hospice care agency, and a combination of up to 10 patients/discharges from each agency that provided both home health and hospice care services. In-person interviews were conducted with agency directors and their designated staff; no interviews were conducted directly with patients. The survey instrument contained agency- and person-level modules, sampling modules, and a self-administered staffing questionnaire. RESULTS: Data were collected on 1036 agencies, 4683 current home health care patients, and 4733 hospice care discharges. The first-stage agency weighted response rate (for differential probabilities of selection) was 59%. The second-stage patient/discharge weighted response rate was 96%. Three public-use files were released: an agency-level file, a patient/discharge-level file, and a medication file. The files include sampling weights, which are necessary to generate national estimates, and design variables to enable users to calculate accurate standard errors.

Design and operation of the national home health aide survey: 2007-2008.

OBJECTIVES: This report provides an overview of the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides. NHHAS was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides who provided assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs) and were directly employed by agencies that provide home health and/or hospice care. This report discusses the need for and objectives of the survey, the design process, the survey methods, and data availability. METHODS NHHAS, a multistage probability sample survey, was conducted as a supplement to the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS). Agencies providing home health and/or hospice care were sampled, and then aides employed by these agencies were sampled and interviewed by telephone. Survey topics included recruitment, training, job history, family life, client relations, work-related injuries, and demographics. NHHAS was virtually identical to the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey of certified nursing assistants employed in sampled nursing homes with minor changes to account for differences in workplace environment and responsibilities. RESULTS From September 2007 to April 2008, interviews were completed with 3,416 aides. A public-use data file that contains the interview responses, sampling weights, and design variables is available. The NHHAS overall response rate weighted by the inverse of the probability of selection was 41 percent. This rate is the product of the weighted first-stage agency response rate of 57 percent (i.e., weighted response rate of 59 percent for agency participation in NHHCS times the weighted response rate of 97 percent for agencies participating in NHHCS that also participated in NHHAS) and the weighted second-stage aide response rate of 72 percent to NHHAS.

An introduction to the National Nursing Assistant Survey.

OBJECTIVES: This report provides an introduction and overview of the National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS),the first national probability survey of nursing assistants working in nursing homes. The NNAS was designed to provide national estimates and to allow for separate estimates to be calculated for nursing assistants by geographic location of the agency and for workers by tenure at the sampled facility. This report includes a description of relevant research that led to federal interest in sponsoring the NNAS, types of data collected, methodology, linkage between the NNAS and the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS), advantages of combining establishment and worker surveys, and potential uses of the data. METHODS: The NNAS was conducted as a supplement to the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey. The design was a stratified, multistage probability survey. Nursing facilities were sampled and then nursing assistants were sampled within the facilities. Telephone interviews were conducted with nursing assistants using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI). The survey instrument consisted of sections on recruitment, training and licensure, job history, family life, management and supervision, client relations, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, workplace environment, work-related injuries, and demographics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: A total of 3,017 interviews were completed from September 2004 to February 2005. The overall response rate was 53.4 percent. A public-use data file has been released that contains the interview responses and sampling weights. The file also includes ownership, bed size, and geographic location of the facility where the nursing assistant was sampled. Estimates based on the sampling weights can be used to produce national estimates.