Perinatal Access to Resources and Support (PEARS) Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving Access to Support for Perinatal Women through Peer Facilitation: A Feasibility Study with External Pilot
IRAS ID
178138
Contact name
Pauline Slade
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Having a baby is a major life transition when availability of support is particularly important. There are many community resources available; however, women from socially deprived areas often do not access these resources. This means they do not gain the potential benefits and society becomes more unequal for them and their children. We aim to test whether an intervention that combines three elements of care (provision of information about existing services; support from a non-professional peer facilitator; and if-then planning) in a 20 minute contact can improve access to support and psychological wellbeing.
This feasibility study will examine the integration and acceptability of the study processes to the local population and health system. The study will include an external pilot to allow us to test the components and procedures in real-life settings and gather information for a larger population level evaluation.We aim to recruit 190 women in early pregnancy. Half of the women will receive the intervention and half will receive information about existing resources only.
At 34-37 weeks of pregnancy we will ask all participants to complete follow-up measures about their uptake of resources, their psychological wellbeing and feelings for their developing baby. Women in the intervention group will have another meeting with their peer facilitator early postnatally, replicating the components of the intervention in pregnancy.
At 6 months postnatally we will ask women to repeat the follow-up measures and ask a subsample for detailed feedback on the study. We will also run focus groups with peer facilitators and health services staff to gather feedback on how the study process fits into existing services.
We will gather information from other north west areas on how this system can be implemented in other localities.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0537
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion