Researcher Estel Gelabert receives help from La Marató for a mental health project
The edition of TV3's La Marató dedicated to mental health will finance a total of 36 projects with 10.5 million euros, one of which has the participation of Dr. Estel Gelabert, researcher and professor in this department.
Preventing postpartum depression and anxiety in first-time mothers
Estel Gelabert, from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, is one of the researchers to work on the project "Adaptació i implementació d’una intervenció psicoeducativa per a la prevenció de la depressió postpart i trastorns d’ansietat en mares primerenques" [Adaptation and Implementation of a psychoeducational intervention to prevent postpartum depression and anxiety disorder in first-time mothers]. The research aims to adapt to current contexts gender perspective-based psychoeducational intervention for first-time mothers (and partners) to reduce the prevalence of mental disorders after giving birth.
"Perinatal mental health problems affect one in every five women during their pregnancy or during the first year postpartum. Mood disorders and anxiety are the most common conditions, and often go together. The effects of perinatal anxiety and depression have been established, not only on the mother's health, but also in the infant's development. Improving perinatal mental health form part of the WHO's Millennium Development Goals and therefore, the implementation of preventive measures in community services should be a priority among health care providers. Our country does not have effective prevention programmes that form and integrated part of postpartum attention, and that is why this study on the effectiveness and implementation of such practices is a must", points out Estel Gelabert.
In the study's first phase, the research team will culturally adapt the psychoeducational intervention, conduct its assessment through focus groups and train midwives working in primary healthcare centres. In the second phase, a randomised clinical trial will be conducted to study its efficacy in the primary health care sector.
Participating in this co-ordinated project is Susanna Subirà, also researcher at the UAB Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, as well as other researchers from the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, including Alba Roca, the project's principal investigator and coordinator.