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Understanding parental psychopathology interaction is important in preventing negative family outcomes. This study investigated the effect of paternal psychiatric history on maternal depressive symptom trajectory from birth to 12 months postpartum. Maternal Edinburgh Postpartum Depression screens were collected at 1, 6 and 12 months and fathers' psychiatric diagnoses were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV from 64 families. There was not a significant difference in the trajectory of maternal depressive symptoms between mothers with partners with history of or a current psychiatric condition or those without a condition. However, mothers with partners with substance abuse history had higher levels of depressive symptoms relative to those affected by mood/anxiety disorders or those without a disorder. Our results call for a closer look at paternal history of substance abuse when treating postpartum maternal depression.

Home visiting is a strategy widely implemented to support families following the birth of a baby. There is a broad consensus that home visiting programmes are successful. But there is little understanding of factors moderating this success. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between maternal involvement in a nurse home visiting programme, maternal depression, and adjustment to the parenting role.

A retrospective design was employed in which the medical records of 40 mothers who had been enroled in a nurse home visiting programme were examined. The number of nurse home visits from birth to six months, maternal depressive symptoms, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) and responsivity scores were examined. Mothers had been selected for the programme if they had a history of mental illness, were in a violent relationship, or reported drug or alcohol problems.

A significant, positive relationship was found between maternal involvement, positive HOME environment and maternal responsivity scores. Furthermore, the mothers with the highest scores for HOME environment and responsivity to their infant ' s cues at six months were mothers experiencing deteriorating symptoms of depression. These mothers had the highest levels of involvement with the programme. Despite their mothers’ deteriorating mental health, infants whose mothers received the greatest number of visits from a nurse received the greatest benefit ameliorating their risk for developing poor attachment and impaired behavioural, emotional and cognitive development.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between changes in maternal depression and programme outcomes in a home visiting programme. It is one of the first explorations of the relationship between maternal involvement and programme outcomes in a targeted nurse home visiting programme to prevent child maltreatment. The findings from this study are critical to future home visiting programme development and evaluation.

Depression is a prevalent, debilitating condition that will replace cancer as the second leading cause of morbidity within the next decade and, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study, ranks number one in disability-adjusted life years for females 5 years and older worldwide (Blehar & Oren, 1997; Murray & Lopez, 1996). Depression in the workplace has been linked to increased absenteeism and productivity loss, is equal to the costs of diabetes and hypertension, and these costs are almost equal to the direct costs of depression treatment (Kessler et al., 1999; Marlowe, 2002; Druss, Rosenheck, & Sledge, 2000; Elinson, Houck, Marcus, & Pincus, 2004). A national study of individuals 15–54 years documented a lifetime prevalence of 17.1% and found that depression was more common in females, young adults, and those with less education (Blazer, Kessler, McGonagle, & Swartz, 1994; Kessler, McGonagle, Swartz, Blazer, & Nelson, 1993; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2000; Kessler et al., 1994a, 1994b; Bebbington et al., 2003).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the validity and accuracy of the Whooley questions for routine screening of maternal distress in Dutch antenatal care.

In this cohort design, the authors evaluated self-reported responses to the Whooley questions against the Edinburgh Depression Scale screening for antenatal depression, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for general anxiety and the pregnancy-related anxiety questionnaire-revised screening for pregnancy-related anxiety, among Dutch pregnant women during the first and third trimester of pregnancy. The authors used standard diagnostic performance measures for the two case-finding items.

The Whooley items in this study showed a higher specificity than sensitivity. The Whooley results showed good evidence to identify women who are depressed or (trait)anxious in both trimesters of pregnancy, but the results showed weak to moderate evidence to identify pregnancy-related anxiety. The Whooley items had a low to moderate predictive ability for depression, trait-anxiety and pregnancy-related anxiety and a good ability for negative case-finding. The Whooley items proved to be more able to report how effective the case-finding questions are in identifying women without depression, trait-anxiety and pregnancy-related anxiety (ruling out) rather than how effective these are in identifying women with depression, trait-anxiety and pregnancy-related anxiety (ruling in). The Whooley items were accurate in identifying depression and trait-anxiety in both trimesters but were not very accurate to identify pregnancy-related anxiety.

Assessment of pregnancy-related anxiety using a case-finding tool requires further attention.

The two-item Whooley case-finding tool has shown good utility as a screening instrument for maternal distress. The continuous assessment of maternal emotional health during the childbearing period or, at least, revisiting the topic, would both support the woman and the midwife in regarding perinatal emotional wellbeing as an important remit of midwifery care.

A novel aspect of this paper is the proposition of applying the Whooley questions at later stages of pregnancy or presenting the Whooley questions in a written or digital form.

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of health cadres in Indonesia to take perinatal depression screening in the community using Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Whooley.

The field study involved 11 health cadres (community volunteers who assist in maternal and child health) who were trained to administrate EPDS and Whooley towards 36 pregnant and postpartum mothers in a low resource urban setting for a month. A comparison of scores from both tools, the number and type of mistakes made by the cadres, and cadres perception about the tools were combined to determine the most feasible tool for cadres in identifying depression symptoms.

The results show both tools are comparable for screening depression symptoms in mothers; however, EPDS was better at differentiating the level of symptoms. Whooley, with two case-finding questions, is simpler for cadres, whereas the EPDS is more difficult to be computed by cadres. Cadres support the implementation of such a screening, as it provides a channel for mothers to express their negative feelings.

The findings indicate Whooley is sufficient for first-level screening in the community by cadres, whereas the EPDS should be used by qualified health-care workers for further evaluation at primary health clinics.

Health cadres could potentially be trained to use standardized yet simple psychological tools. Involving trained health cadres in integrated maternal mental health services in primary health care in Surabaya, Indonesia is promising.

The use of the EPDS and the Whooley questions has not been applied in Indonesia particularly among health cadres despite their long-lasting role in primary health-care system.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of guided self‐help cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for mothers with depression and/or anxiety undertaken in two Sure Start children's centres in the London Borough of Bexley.

A quantitative study was carried out involving 23 participants who attended an initial appointment with a Psychological Well‐being Practitioner and who were assessed and allocated to a guided self‐help CBT intervention (either workbooks or computer‐based). In addition, in‐depth interviews were undertaken with nine participants who had completed the programme.

The study finds that guided self‐help CBT produced a significant clinical benefit for participants with mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety. Narratives with participants also highlighted improved confidence and self‐esteem, positive thinking and better coping strategies, which may have a positive impact on their children and families. This research also demonstrated the importance of a partnership approach to providing therapeutic interventions for vulnerable groups such as those in this study.

The findings represent a “snap‐shot” of the positive effects of guided self‐help CBT for those suffering maternal depression. They demonstrate the need to recognise and support the therapeutic social milieu, particularly in settings that are familiar and accessible. In addition, psychological interventions that include facilitative holistic working and inter‐agency working can be particularly effective.

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the prevention programme EFFEKT‐E that was designed for preschool children of depressive mothers and contains an intervention for children and for mothers.

Research was carried out in mother‐child clinics in Germany. In total, 220 strained mothers, who were screened for elevated levels of depressive symptoms, were enrolled in the control and 186 in the training group. For evaluation, mothers rated emotional disturbance and social competence of the child as outcome measures before and after the training. Changes in parenting behaviour, perceived parental competence and parenting stress were also assessed.

An effect on emotional disturbance of the child emerged (d=0.52) in the training group. Perceived parental competence increased (d=0.72) and parental stress decreased (d=0.23) significantly under training. EFFEKT‐E has proven to be a valuable programme for preventing depression in offspring of mothers who feel depressed.

The article identifies the significance of focusing on parenting as a preventive intervention in the mechanisms of familial transmission of depression and evaluation of a family‐oriented programme for young children designed to achieve this.

Perinatal drug users are a marginalized group at risk of depression and parenting stress. This study aims to inform service development by determining key components needed to reduce depression among this population by triangulating data from qualitative interviews with service users and their care providers.

Pre and post natal in‐depth qualitative interviews with drug users attending a specialist antenatal clinic in Melbourne, Australia, and their care providers were conducted; and an email survey of experts was undertaken. Twenty‐eight interviews were conducted and the views of ten experts were received. Data from these sources were triangulated to determine the key components of an intervention to reduce depression among perinatal drug users.

There was high concordance among data sources. Key service components identified were: case management; extended postnatal care; access to mental health services and drug treatment including relapse prevention; parenting support, and housing support. Judgmental attitudes from healthcare staff and the fear of child protection may be barriers to accessing services.

The study findings are limited by the small sample size.

Services should be enhanced in pregnancy and the early parenting years to build a service model that incorporates the key components identified in this study and supported in the literature.

The originality and value of this study is that it determines the key service components needed to reduce depression among perinatal drug users by triangulating their experiences and views, that of their care providers and expert opinion.

This paper aims to update the chapter by Sutton and Murray in Support from the Start by providing an overview of: research linking the development and experiences of infants and toddlers with the risks of later antisocial behaviour; and evidence on effective interventions for children aged 0‐2 and their families.

The authors give a narrative review on the effects on mothers and their babies of postnatal depression.

The review examines the effects on mothers and their babies of postnatal depression, impaired bonding, insecure attachment as well as the impact of maltreatment in childhood. It considers a number of evidence‐based preventive interventions implemented in the UK to help children aged 0‐2 and their parents.

The paper provides an overview of recent evidence for the factors contributing to difficulties for parents of young children and identifies interventions demonstrated in high‐quality studies to prevent or address these problems.

Although anemia during pregnancy is common in the USA, socio-demographic factors make pregnant women enrolled in Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program more vulnerable than the general population. The purpose of this study was to examine the socio-demographic characteristics, blood hemoglobin concentrations, nutrition knowledge and potential associations among these factors in a sample of pregnant women participating in the WIC program.

A cross-sectional study using survey methodology was conducted. In total, 60 pregnant women who were between 12 and 24 weeks of gestation and were carrying a single fetus were recruited from two WIC clinics. Overall nutrition knowledge was assessed with 42 questions arranged into three subscales. Participants’ scores were transformed into tertiles. WIC program records were used to record blood hemoglobin values. Principal component analysis was used to validate the knowledge subscales. Correlational and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship among variables.

Prevalence of anemia among the participants was higher than the national averages. Only 10 per cent of participants scored in the high tertile for nutrition knowledge. Anemia-during-pregnancy knowledge score was positively correlated with blood hemoglobin concentrations (r = 0.23, p < 0.05), and it was also a predictor of blood hemoglobin levels (R2 = 0.364, p = 0.02).

This is the first study to report on the knowledge of anemia, anemia during pregnancy and preventive measures among pregnant women enrolled in the WIC program.