Impact of a mother-infant intervention in an indigent peri-urban South African context: pilot study
Peter J Cooper1, Mireille Landman, Mark Tomlinson
1Department of Psychology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AL, UK. p.j.cooper@reading.ac.uk
Background:
A high rate of maternal depression and associated disturbance in the mother-infant relationship has been found in an indigent peri-urban South African community, Khayelitsha. The question arises whether a community-based intervention could be beneficial.
Aims:
To train community workers to deliver an intervention to mothers and infants in Khayelitsha, and to compare mothers and infants receiving this intervention with a sample receiving no such intervention.
Method:
Four Khayelitsha women were trained in a mother-infant intervention, which they delivered to 32 women recruited in late pregnancy. At 6 months post-partum, maternal mood, the mother-infant relationship and infant growth were assessed. The findings were compared with a matched group of 32 mothers and infants.
Results:
There was no reliable impact of the intervention on maternal mood. However, compared with the comparison sample, the quality of mother-infant engagement was significantly more positive for those who had received the intervention.
Conclusions:
The pilot study produced preliminary evidence of a benefit of a community-based mother-infant intervention delivered by trained, but otherwise unqualified, community workers, sufficient to warrant a formal controlled evaluation of this treatment.
