Lessons Learned from Remote Assessment of Mother-Infant Interactions Among Women with Postpartum Depression

The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to measuring mother-infant interactions, a critical outcome for many interventions to support mothers with postpartum depression symptoms and their new infants. The current study describes the process and lessons learned from implementing a remote assessment of mother-infant interactions during the pandemic.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted from in-person to using two different strategies to remotely assess mother-infant interactions: (1) participants independently recorded and uploaded videos of free-play with their child; and (2) research team conducted a live-video recording of the free-play.

We found initial barriers including technical and video quality issues but overall, a remote option could increase enrollment and retention rates in a sample of postpartum women across various racial/ethnic groups and economic levels.

Our experiences in conducting remote assessments with postpartum women add to growing evidence for the feasibility and validity of remote visits. This showed how our methods can be implemented in future research and in practice with postpartum mothers and their infants.