[Child protection from the beginning. Need for early peripartum support - clinical experiences]

So called early interventions aim to promote healthy development and welfare of children and to prevent child maltreatment. For this purpose, psychosocial support measures offered during the perinatal phase are regarded to be highly promising. As part of a project located at an academic hospital, the significance of such early interventions during obstetric care was to be elicited from the clinicians' view.

Semi-structured interviews with 12 health care professionals from the maternity hospital unit (n = 8 nurses, n = 3 midwifes, n = 1 medical doctor).

Four main categories were identified: i) patient situations indicating need for early psychosocial support (precarious living circumstances, complicated pregnancy, and maternal psychiatric disorders), ii) detection of patients in need of this kind of support, iii) reacting to presumed or confirmed need for early psychosocial support, and iv) context factors impacting on clinicians' assessment and activities. The interviews revealed some room for improvement, e.g. with respect to identifying patients in need for early psychosocial support, communicating with them, and collaborating with communal health care and welfare institutions.

In the clinicians' view, early psychosocial interventions appear to have an important role in hospital obstetric care. Based on results from this study, local care processes were adapted.