Relationship focused mother-infant groups: Preliminary evaluation of improvements in maternal mental health, parenting confidence, and parental reflective functioning.

We report on two preliminary evaluations of a group intervention, targeting vulnerable infants and their mothers within the first 6-months postpartum. The Mother-Baby Nurture program aims to strengthen the developing infant-mother attachment relationship by increasing maternal mentalizing. These studies were undertaken with pre-post evaluations with the mothers of infants under 10-months of age.

How are you sleeping? Starting the conversation with fathers about their mental health in the early parenting years.

Background: Approximately 1 in 10 fathers of infants experience symptoms of common mental health disorders, prompting calls for paternal postpartum screening. However, numerous obstacles exist to screening implementation. The aim of this study was to provide preliminary evidence for an alternative approach that starts with asking fathers about their sleep.

Association between pregnant women's experience of stress and partners' fly-in-fly-out work.

Background: It is relatively common in Western Australia for men to commute long distances and work away from home for extended periods of time, often referred to as fly-in-fly-out work. Women are particularly susceptible to the effects of stress during pregnancy, and the absence of a partner due to working away could be an additional risk to their wellbeing. While there is little published fly-in-fly-out literature, there is evidence that working non-standard hours, more generally, has a negative impact on health and well-being of workers and their families.

PATERNAL AND MATERNAL REFLECTIVE FUNCTIONING IN THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PEEL CHILD HEALTH STUDY.

While past research on the care of infants has been mostly with mothers, in recent times there has been a renewed attention to the father-infant relationship. This study examined differences between mother and father parental reflective functioning (PRF) or parental mentalizing; that is, the parental capacity to reason about their own and their children's behaviors by taking into consideration intentional mental states. Data were collected from 120 couples with a 1-year-old child who were participants in the West Australian Peel Child Health Study.