A Saint Louis University research paper published online March 16 in JMIR Mental Health explores the feasibility of helping low-income mothers through postpartum depression using text messages.
Corresponding author Matthew A. Broom, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University and SLUCare physician at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, formed the Happy Mothers, Healthy Families program in 2013 with a three-year, $316,140 grant from the Maternal Child and Family Health Coalition (MCHFC).
Other authors include Amy S. Ladley, Ph.D. and Elizabeth A. Rhyne, R.N. CPNP, of SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center and the Saint Louis University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, and Donna R. Halloran, M.D., MSPH, associate professor of pediatrics at SLU and a SLUCare physician at Cardinal Glennon.
The objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of sending supportive text messages to low-income mothers of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds with postpartum depression and gauge the perception of receiving such message for depression.
Mothers found to be at risk received supportive text messages four times a week for six months, in addition to receiving access to traditional counseling services in an academic pediatric office. By the end of the research period, 4,158 text messages (86.1 percent of those sent) were successfully delivered to 54 mothers.
[For more go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.../04/150417121910.htm]
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