Randomized controlled trial to prevent postpartum depressive symptomatology: An infant carrier intervention

There is a need for effective interventions to reduce symptomatology of postpartum depression. The objective of this study was to test whether providing an ergonomic infant carrier would reduce postpartum depression symptomatology.

A randomized two-arm, parallel-group trial with 100 participants was conducted between February 2018 and June 2019 in a low-income community. At 30-weeks' gestation, 50 participants were randomly assigned to receive an ergonomic infant carrier and instructions on proper use (intervention group), and 50 participants were assigned to a waitlist (control group). Participants tracked the extent of their infant carrier use and completed the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) to assess postpartum depression symptomatology at 6-weeks postpartum.

Participants in the intervention group reported using an infant carrier significantly more often than the control group (β = 2.69, SE = 0.347, p < .001, 95 % CI = 2.08-3.41). The intervention group reported fewer depressive symptoms at 6-weeks postpartum than the control group (β = -0.541, p = .042).

The sample size was relatively small and thus our results may not be generalizable to the general population.

Infant carrying may be a cost-effective intervention to reduce postpartum depression symptomatology. Large-scale studies are warranted to further examine the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of providing carriers as an intervention to reduce postpartum depression symptomatology.

Clinicaltrials.gov id: NCT04376021. Data Sharing Statement: Deidentified individual participant data will not be made available because we did not obtain permission to share individual data.

NCT0437602; https://beta.

gov/study/NCT04376021.