Mellow Babies: a randomised feasibility trial of an intervention to improve the quality of parent-infant interactions and parental mental wellbeing

Lucy Thompson; Philip Wilson

doi:10.3390/children11050510

Mellow Babies: a randomised feasibility trial of an intervention to improve the quality of parent-infant interactions and parental mental wellbeing

Lucy Thompson, Philip Wilson^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Copenhagen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Mellow Babies aims to improve mothers’ mental wellbeing and the quality of their interactions with their baby. The feasibility of a definitive trial of Mellow Babies was assessed using a waiting-list randomised pilot trial (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02277301). Mothers with substantial health/social care needs and a child aged < 13 months were randomly allocated either to a 14-week Mellow Babies programme or to receive usual care whilst on a waiting list for the intervention. Rates of recruitment and retention as well as participants’ views of their experience in this study were recorded. Outcomes were parenting behaviour, assessed by the blind-rated Mellow Parenting Observation System (primary) and self-report maternal wellbeing pre- and post-intervention/waiting period. We recruited 38 eligible participants: 36 (95%; 18 intervention, 18 control) completed baseline measures, and 28 (74%; 15 intervention, 13 control) provided post-intervention data. Two practitioners took part in feedback interviews. Intervention participants had significantly more positive interactions with their babies at post-intervention compared to those in the control group (p = 0.019), adjusted for pre-intervention scores. There was no significant improvement in mothers’ mental wellbeing on any measure. A definitive trial of Mellow Babies is feasible and should include longer follow up of mothers and the opportunity for fathers to take part.

Original language	English
Article number	510
Number of pages	11
Journal	Children
Volume	11
Issue number	5
Early online date	24 Apr 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/children11050510
Publication status	Published - 24 Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments: We are extremely grateful to the late Pam Sherriff for administrative support to the study, and to Gerry King, who worked as a research assistant to the study and no longer works in academic research. We are also most grateful to the Mellow Babies practitioners for helping facilitate the research.

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author due to limited resources precluding placement in a public repository

Keywords

feasibility trial
parent support
parent-child interaction
perinatal mental health

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/children11050510Licence: CC BY

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Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Swierland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Aribution (CC BY) license (hps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 452 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Mellow Babies aims to improve mothers{\textquoteright} mental wellbeing and the quality of their interactions with their baby. The feasibility of a definitive trial of Mellow Babies was assessed using a waiting-list randomised pilot trial (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02277301). Mothers with substantial health/social care needs and a child aged < 13 months were randomly allocated either to a 14-week Mellow Babies programme or to receive usual care whilst on a waiting list for the intervention. Rates of recruitment and retention as well as participants{\textquoteright} views of their experience in this study were recorded. Outcomes were parenting behaviour, assessed by the blind-rated Mellow Parenting Observation System (primary) and self-report maternal wellbeing pre- and post-intervention/waiting period. We recruited 38 eligible participants: 36 (95%; 18 intervention, 18 control) completed baseline measures, and 28 (74%; 15 intervention, 13 control) provided post-intervention data. Two practitioners took part in feedback interviews. Intervention participants had significantly more positive interactions with their babies at post-intervention compared to those in the control group (p = 0.019), adjusted for pre-intervention scores. There was no significant improvement in mothers{\textquoteright} mental wellbeing on any measure. A definitive trial of Mellow Babies is feasible and should include longer follow up of mothers and the opportunity for fathers to take part.",

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Mellow Babies: a randomised feasibility trial of an intervention to improve the quality of parent-infant interactions and parental mental wellbeing

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Cite this