Effects of March of Dimes Supportive Pregnancy Care on Social Support and Postpartum Depression

Group prenatal care, which integrates medical care with patient education and empowerment in a group setting, has the potential to build social support among pregnant women and reduce the risk of postpartum depression (PPD). Past research on group care's effects on social support or PPD has produced inconsistent findings. Studies have tended to (1) examine direct effects on social support or PPD and (2) treat group care participation as a dichotomous variable. This study tests the hypothesis that group care has an indirect effect on PPD through its effect on social support. It uses both a dichotomous measure of group care participation and an ordinal measure of social contact with group members.

This study used survey data from 199 women at two Tennessee health care sites who participated in traditional care (TC) or Supportive Pregnancy Care (SPC), a new group program developed by March of Dimes. Path analysis was employed, estimating standardized path coefficients with propensity score weighted multilevel modeling.

The study found no evidence of an indirect relationship between SPC and PPD symptoms when modeling the dichotomous measure. Modeling the ordinal measure revealed more favorable PPD outcomes among women reporting high group member contact (compared with TC) and adverse outcomes among women reporting low group member contact.

SPC may be useful for preventing PPD symptoms among women socially engaged with other group care patients. Given the adverse effect among women who do not engage with other group members, group facilitators should encourage women to interact outside of scheduled sessions.