Relationship focused mother–infant groups: Preliminary evaluation of improvements in maternal mental health, parenting confidence, and parental reflective functioning

Abstract

We report on two preliminary evaluations of a group intervention, targeting vulnerable infants and their mothers within the first 6-months postpartum. The Mother–Baby Nurture^® program aims to strengthen the developing infant–mother attachment relationship by increasing maternal mentalizing. These studies were undertaken with pre-post evaluations with the mothers of infants under 10-months of age. The mother–infant dyads participated in ten 2-h group sessions. Study one (N = 69 dyads) included self-reported maternal depression, anxiety, and parenting confidence. In study two (N = 27 dyads), parenting stress and reflective functioning were measured by self-report, and reflective functioning coded on the 5 min speech sample (completed by N = 22). Results from study one confirmed a decrease in depression (p < .001, d = .79) and anxiety (p < .001, d = .72) symptoms, and an increase in mothers’ scores for parenting confidence (p < .001, d = −.98). Results from Study Two demonstrated a significant decrease in parenting stress (p < .001, d = .94) and significant improvement in measures of self-report reflective functioning (p = .007, .024; d = .56, .61). These findings are preliminary yet promising indications that this program could be effective in alleviating parenting stress, depression, and anxiety, and improving mother's reflective functioning and parenting confidence. Further research is needed, with a control group and long-term follow-up assessments.