The association between perinatal depressive symptoms and child neurodevelopment.

BACKGROUND: Perinatal depression has been suggested to adversely impact child neurodevelopment. However, the complexity of the early childhood environment challenges conclusive findings. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether there is an association between perinatal depressive symptoms and child intelligence quotient (IQ) at 5 years of age. STUDY DESIGN: Secondary analysis of an ancillary study to a multicenter randomized trial of thyroxine therapy for pregnant individuals with subclinical hypothyroidism. Dyads of infants and birthing parent, with completed Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) screens during pregnancy and postpartum and child neurodevelopment testing completed at five years of age (n=209) were included. CES-D screening was performed at 11-20 weeks, 34-38 weeks, and one-year postpartum. Depressive symptoms were categorized as antenatal (i.e., a positive screen at any point during pregnancy) or postpartum. The primary outcome was child IQ score < 85 at 5 years of age using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence III (WPPSI-III) Full Scale test. Secondary outcomes included other assessments of childhood neurodevelopment. Bivariable analyses and multivariable logistic regressions were utilized. RESULTS: Of the 209 birthing people included, 72 (34%) screened positive for depression during pregnancy and 32 (15%) screened positive one year postpartum. Children born to individuals with a positive antenatal depression screen had a higher odds of IQ < 85 at 5 years of age compared with children born to individuals with a CES-D < 16 (35% vs. 18%, OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2-4.7). Similar findings were seen for children born to individuals with a positive postpartum depression screen (47% vs. 21%, OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.5-7.3). These associations did not persist in multivariable analyses that controlled for social determinants of health and clinical characteristics (adjusted odd ratio [aOR] 1.4, 95% CI 0.7-3.1; aOR 2.1, 95% CI 0.9-5.1, for antenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms, respectively). Similar findings were observed for other adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Having a positive perinatal depression screen was not associated with child cognitive outcomes after controlling for covariates including social determinants of health.

Safety of Antiretroviral Exposure During Pregnancy: Opportunities to Close Data Gaps.

Pregnant persons with chronic health conditions often require pharmacotherapy to remain healthy. The Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry is a prospective, international, voluntary, and exposure registry that collects information on antiretroviral (ARV) exposure; however, a minority of providers use the registry, leaving critical gaps to guide prescribing in this population. The Task Force for the Elimination of Perinatal HIV Transmission in the United States, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has identified the monitoring of ARV safety as a paramount concern in the ongoing mission to eliminate perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. As active members of this task force, we urge all healthcare providers who care for pregnant individuals to prioritize reporting all ARV exposures to the registry.

Uncertainty in Postpartum Permanent Contraception Decision-Making: Physician and Patient Perspectives.

PURPOSE: We sought to understand how patients and physicians conceptualize uncertainty in the permanent contraception decision-making process. BASIC PROCEDURES: In 2022-2023, we interviewed postpartum patients with a documented desire for permanent contraception (n = 81) and their delivering physicians (n = 67). Eligible patients gave birth at one of our four study hospitals in California, Ohio, Illinois, and Alabama. We used rapid content analysis and thematic content analysis to develop and refine themes related to uncertainty in permanent contraceptive decision-making. MAIN FINDINGS: Most patients reported full certainty in their decision regarding permanent contraception, although some expressed doubts. After receiving permanent contraception, some patients discussed grief but overall affirmed their decision. One patient said they wished they had considered other contraceptive options. Physicians reported using a range of strategies to safeguard from patient regret, including ensuring patients were 100% certain with their decision, inferring certainty based on their characteristics, asking patients to think through all scenarios that could affect decision-making, and repeat counseling during multiple interactions. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: Patient experiences reveal the depth, fluidity, and nuance of patients' contraceptive decision-making processes. Physicians sometimes failed to grapple with this nuance by centering potential regret in their counseling. Personalized and supportive contraceptive counseling that acknowledges the complexity of contraceptive decision-making is imperative. Shared decision-making can help ensure patients can make informed and autonomous decisions about their reproductive lives.

Remote blood pressure management for postpartum hypertension: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

BACKGROUND: Recognizing the importance of close follow-up after hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, many centers have initiated programs to support postpartum remote blood pressure management. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of remote blood pressure management to determine the scalability of these programmatic interventions. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cost-effectiveness analysis of using remote blood pressure management vs usual care to manage postpartum hypertension. The modeled remote blood pressure management included provision of a home blood pressure monitor, guidance on warning symptoms, instructions on blood pressure self-monitoring twice daily, and clinical staff to manage population-level blood pressures as appropriate. Usual care was defined as guidance on warning symptoms and recommendations for 1 outpatient visit for blood pressure monitoring within a week after discharge. This study designed a Markov model that ran over fourteen 1-day cycles to reflect the initial 2 weeks after delivery when most emergency department visits and readmissions occur and remote blood pressure management is clinically anticipated to be most impactful. Parameter values for the base-case scenario were derived from both internal data and literature review. Quality-adjusted life-years were calculated over the first year after delivery and reflected the short-term morbidities associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy that, for most birthing people, resolve by 2 weeks after delivery. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the strength and validity of the model. The primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, which was defined as the cost needed to gain 1 quality-adjusted life-year. The secondary outcome was incremental cost per readmission averted. Analyses were performed from a societal perspective. RESULTS: In the base-case scenario, remote blood pressure management was the dominant strategy (ie, cost less, higher quality-adjusted life-years). In univariate sensitivity analyses, the most cost-effective strategy shifted to usual care when the cost of readmission fell below $2987.92 and the rate of reported severe range blood pressure with a response in remote blood pressure management was <1%. Assuming a willingness to pay of $100,000 per quality-adjusted life-year, using remote blood pressure management was cost-effective in 99.28% of simulations in a Monte Carlo analysis. Using readmissions averted as a secondary effectiveness outcome, the incremental cost per readmission averted was $145.00. CONCLUSION: Remote blood pressure management for postpartum hypertension is cost saving and has better outcomes than usual care. Our data can be used to inform future dissemination of and support funding for remote blood pressure management programs.

Models of care: Opportunities and challenges.

Perinatal mental health models can broadly be described by scope and structure. Within these two broad domains lies an array of diverse methodologies that have attempted to increase access and coordination of care. These efforts have uncovered many opportunities that, if addressed, may improve our current parent and infant outcomes within our healthcare system and community. Furthermore, there are several opportunities that, if addressed, will result in more equitable, inclusive care. These include being attentive to the unique needs of vulnerable populations, emphasizing community efforts, and closing the current gaps in legislation.

Ongoing contraceptive goals of patients who did not achieve desired postpartum permanent contraception prior to hospital discharge.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate reasons for non-fulfillment and ongoing contraceptive plans of patients who desired but did not receive inpatient postpartum permanent contraception (PC). STUDY DESIGN: Multi-site retrospective cohort study of 1254 patients with unfulfilled inpatient postpartum PC. We analyzed the reason for PC non-fulfillment, documented contraceptive plan, and method prescription or provision at hospital discharge, six-weeks, and one-year postpartum. RESULTS: In our cohort, 44.3% of patients with unfulfilled inpatient PC did not receive any highly- or moderately-effective contraception within one year postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: Removing barriers to PC fulfillment as well as contraceptive counseling that acknowledges these barriers is imperative.

The Emerging Landscape of Social Media Influencers in Public Health Collaborations: A Scoping Review.

Social media content creators or "influencers" are an increasingly influential voice in the public discourse generally, including global perceptions and practices related to health. In response, public health entities are increasingly embracing social media influencers (SMIs) as potential health promotion collaborators. Despite burgeoning interest in the potential of these partnerships, research evaluating this strategy remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review to characterize and describe the current landscape of health promotion collaborations with SMIs with a focus on current practices. A search of six electronic databases (PubMed, SCOPUS, Communication & Mass Media Complete, CINAHL Plus, Web of Science, and APA PsycINFO) revealed wide-ranging and inconsistent approaches to these partnerships, including their optimal practices, data reported, and their evaluation criteria. Among the 658 articles initially identified, 15 publications met our inclusion criteria, spanning 7 countries, 8 social media platforms, 11 distinct health topics, and 21 different outcome measures. Basic information necessary for comparing across interventions was often lacking. We noted a lack of consensus on what constitutes an SMI with 53% of included studies lacking any definition or criteria. Although SMIs offer substantial promise as an emerging opportunity for health promotion, particularly for populations that may be otherwise difficult to identify or reach, this review highlights how the current lack of standardized methodologies and metrics prevents meaningful comparisons between collaborations and evaluations of their effectiveness. Based on these findings, we propose four key criteria to aid practitioners in the implementation and evaluation of SMI collaborations.

Fulfillment of Permanent Contraception among Patients with Cesarean Delivery in a Multi-Site Cohort.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the association between insurance type and permanent contraception fulfillment among those with cesarean deliveries. Additionally, we sought to examine modification by the scheduled status of the cesarean. STUDY DESIGN: We used data from a multi-site cohort study of patients who delivered in 2018-2019 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Illinois, MetroHealth Medical System in Ohio, or University of Alabama at Birmingham in Alabama. All patients had permanent contraception as their contraceptive plan in their medical chart during delivery hospitalization. We used logistic regression to model the association between insurance type, scheduled status of cesarean and permanent contraception fulfillment by hospital discharge. The scheduled status of cesarean delivery was examined as an effect modifier. RESULTS: Compared to patients with private insurance, those with Medicaid were less likely to have their desired permanent contraception procedure fulfilled by hospital discharge (89.3% vs. 96.8%, p < 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, patients with Medicaid had a lower odds of permanent contraception fulfillment by hospital discharge (OR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.21, 0.77). This association was stronger among those who had unscheduled cesarean deliveries (OR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.74) than those with scheduled cesarean deliveries (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.32, 1.88). CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Compared to patients with private insurance undergoing a cesarean delivery, those with Medicaid insurance were less likely to have their desired permanent contraception fulfilled. Physicians and hospitals must examine their practices surrounding Medicaid forms to ensure that patients have valid consent forms available at the time of delivery.

Proactive Coping in Early Pregnancy and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes.

Objective: Outside of pregnancy, proactive coping has been associated with both mental and physical well-being and with improved quality of life in chronic disease, but its effects in pregnancy are understudied. Our objective was to evaluate whether early pregnancy proactive coping was associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Study Design: This was a planned secondary analysis of nulliparous pregnant people recruited from a tertiary care center. Participants completed a validated assessment of proactive coping (Proactive Coping Scale) at 8-20 weeks and were followed longitudinally through delivery. Detailed pregnancy and delivery data were collected by trained research personnel. The primary outcome was a composite of adverse perinatal outcomes including unplanned cesarean delivery, gestational diabetes, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Secondary analyses included individual perinatal composite components and a neonatal morbidity composite measure. Multivariate regression compared adverse perinatal outcomes by Proactive Coping Scale quartile, controlling for a priori confounders. Results: Of the 281 parturients, the median Proactive Coping Scale score was 45.0 (range 25-55), and 47% experienced an adverse perinatal outcome. After adjusting for confounders, those in the lowest Proactive Coping Scale quartile had 2.2 times higher odds of experiencing an adverse perinatal outcome compared to those in the highest Proactive Coping Scale quartile. There were no differences in odds of the individual composite components or the adverse neonatal outcome. Conclusion: Lower early pregnancy proactive coping scores are associated with significant increase in adverse perinatal outcomes. Interventions that target improving proactive coping may be a novel mechanism for reducing perinatal morbidity.

Proactive coping is the process of preparing for a stressor or goal, which has been studied in the context of chronic disease. We sought to understand how proactive coping relates to pregnancy outcomes. Our results indicated that higher proactive coping scores were associated with lower risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Therefore, interventions to increase proactive coping may have a role in reducing adverse pregnancy outcomes.

The design and implementation of a multi-center, pragmatic, individual-level randomized controlled trial to evaluate Baby2Home, an mHealth intervention to support new parents.

BACKGROUND: Becoming a parent is a transformative experience requiring multiple transitions, including the need to navigate several components of health care, manage any mental health issues, and develop and sustain an approach to infant feeding. Baby2Home (B2H) is a digital intervention built on the collaborative care model (CCM) designed to support families during these transitions to parenthood. OBJECTIVES: We aim to investigate the effects of B2H on preventive healthcare utilization for the family unit and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) trajectories with a focus on mental health. We also aim to evaluate heterogeneity in treatment effects across social determinants of health including self-reported race and ethnicity and household income. We hypothesize that B2H will lead to optimized healthcare utilization, improved PROs trajectories, and reduced racial, ethnic, and income-based disparities in these outcomes as compared to usual care. METHODS: B2H is a multi-center, pragmatic, individual-level randomized controlled trial. We will enroll 640 families who will be randomized to: [1] B2H + usual care, or [2] usual care alone. Preventive healthcare utilization is self-reported and confirmed from medical records and includes attendance at the postpartum visit, contraception use, depression screening, vaccine uptake, well-baby visit attendance, and breastfeeding at 6 months. PROs trajectories will be analyzed after collection at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 12 months. PROs include assessments of stress, depression, anxiety, self-efficacy and relationship health. IMPLICATIONS: If B2H proves effective, it would provide a scalable digital intervention to improve care for families throughout the transition to new parenthood.

Neighbourhood socioeconomic position, prenatal care and fulfilment of postpartum permanent contraception: Findings from a multisite cohort study.

Introduction: Research suggests neighbourhood socioeconomic vulnerability is negatively associated with women's likelihood of receiving adequate prenatal care and achieving desired postpartum permanent contraception. Receiving adequate prenatal care is linked to a greater likelihood of achieving desired permanent contraception, and access to such care may be critical for women with Medicaid insurance given that the federally mandated Medicaid sterilization consent form must be signed at least 30 days before the procedure. We examined whether adequacy of prenatal care mediates the relationship between neighbourhood socioeconomic position and postpartum permanent contraception fulfilment, and examined moderation of relationships by insurance type. Methods: This secondary analysis of a retrospective cohort study examined 3012 Medicaid or privately insured individuals whose contraceptive plan at postpartum discharge was permanent contraception. Path analysis estimated relationships between neighbourhood socioeconomic position (economic hardship and inequality, financial strength and educational attainment) and permanent contraception fulfilment by hospital discharge, directly and indirectly through adequacy of prenatal care. Multigroup testing examined moderation by insurance type. Results: After adjusting for age, parity, weeks of gestation at delivery, mode of delivery, race, ethnicity, marital status and body mass index, having adequate prenatal care predicted achieving desired sterilization at discharge (ß = 0.065, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.011, 0.117). Living in neighbourhoods with less economic hardship (indirect effect -0.007, 95% CI: -0.015, -0.001), less financial strength (indirect effect -0.016, 95% CI: -0.030, -0.002) and greater educational attainment (indirect effect 0.012, 95% CI: 0.002, 0.023) predicted adequate prenatal care, in turn predicting achievement of permanent contraception by discharge. Insurance status conditioned some of these relationships. Conclusion: Contact with the healthcare system via prenatal care may be a mechanism by which neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage affects permanent contraception fulfilment, particularly for patients with Medicaid. To promote reproductive autonomy and healthcare equity, future inquiry and policy might closely examine how neighbourhood social and economic characteristics interact with Medicaid mandates.

The association between postpartum depressive symptoms and contraception.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression affects 10% to 20% of birthing people and is associated with changes in healthcare use. Little is known about the association between postpartum depressive symptoms and choice to use contraception; however, both untreated or undertreated depression and short interpregnancy intervals pose substantial perinatal health risks. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate whether postpartum depressive symptoms are associated with changes in decisions to use any method of contraception. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective cohort study included birthing people who delivered between 2017 and 2022 and were referred to a collaborative care program for mental healthcare. Through this program, birthing people with mental health conditions have access to specialized perinatal mental healthcare and prospective symptom monitoring via a patient registry. Postpartum depressive symptoms are assessed via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and scores were stratified by severity according to clinical cutoffs. Contraceptive method choice was determined by documentation in the electronic health record and dichotomized as "none" if the participant declined all forms of contraception both at delivery and at the postpartum visit. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were performed. RESULTS: Of the 1871 participants that met the inclusion criteria, 160 (8.5%) had postpartum Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores of >14, representing moderately severe or worse depressive symptoms, and 43 (2.3%) had severe (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 of >19) depressive symptoms. Birthing people with higher Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores were more likely to have medical comorbidities; to have a higher body mass index; to self-identify as Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic or Latina; and to have a preterm delivery and less likely to be married or nulliparous than those with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores of ≤14. There was no difference in any other sociodemographic or clinical characteristics. The choice to use any contraceptive method decreased with increasing depressive symptoms in bivariable and multivariable analyses, reaching statistical significance in birthing people with severe depressive symptoms (adjusted odds ratio, 2.92; 95% confidence interval, 1.46-5.84). CONCLUSION: Severe perinatal depressive symptoms are associated with a declination of any form of postpartum contraception. This finding becomes increasingly relevant as abortion access continues to be threatened across the United States, compounding the potential effect of opting not to use contraception.