Development and validation of a tool to assess for postpartum experiences

While multiple tools have diagnostic validity and support the screening for PPD, one of the key challenges has been that they do not entirely capture the subjective experiences of women in the postpartum period. The evaluation of the subjective experiences of depression has value in identifying the key target areas that would need to be addressed in the postpartum period to ensure that the women who are suffering from a gamut of mood problems receive the most appropriate and targeted care as needed.

This research project will be conducted in 2 phases - phase one qualitative - where using semistructed interviews, and phenomenological analysis, we will evaluate the experiences of postpartum mothers in the context of their psycho-social environment. in the second phase, the quantitative phase, we will use the tool created from the learnings of the qualitative phase and factor analysis, comprising both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), will be performed to determine the underlying factors of the new tool. This analysis will involve assessing and validating the tool’s various dimensions. A ROC analysis will be conducted to assess the predictive performance of the new tool, including its sensitivity, specificity, and optimal threshold cut-off values.

the results will be published in peer reviewed journals and in presented in conferences.