Risk and Resilience Associated with Pregnancy and Motherhood
Our work in this area focuses on uncovering factors that help women and pregnant people negotiate the critically important role of motherhood/parenthood, as well as accumulating knowledge to inform the development of new tools and interventions to support the well-being of mothers from diverse backgrounds.
Part of this effort includes developing a brief, evidence-based, and comprehensive Perinatal Mental Illness Screening Tool (PMIST) for use during pregnancy and postpartum to identify mental health symptoms across the range of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs).
Screening is crucial to the early identification and treatment of perinatal mental illness, and in turn, the promotion of family health and resilience. This research was supported by the OSU Center for Family Resilience. We are currently recruiting volunteers 18 years and older who are pregnant or have recently had a baby within the last year! Learn how to enroll in the study..
In collaboration with Dr. Karina Shreffler and Dr. Julie Croff, and supported by CIRCA and OCAST (PI: Shreffler), the BLOOM study aims to better understand the bonding process during pregnancy and determine whether the BLOOM intervention designed by Dr. Ciciolla can enhance maternal-fetal bonding and improve physical and emotional health outcomes for mothers and their babies. Click for more information on the study and how to participate.
Highlights
- Findings from this line of work revealed that resilience during pregnancy influenced the relationship between early life experiences and pregnancy specific stress.
- Data from a study examining invisible household labor found that the distribution of the mental and emotional labor between spouses that is related to managing the household may be linked to women’s well-being, satisfaction of life, partner satisfaction, feelings of emptiness, and experiencing role overload.
- Findings from BLOOM, showed that mothers who participated in a mindfulness-based pilot intervention reported a significant increase in maternal-fetal attachment.