Where: Cairns A1.129 video linked to Townsville 39.252A
When: 25 July, 10:00am to 11:00am
Seminar 1: Managing relationship conflict when becoming and being a parent
Seminar 2: Building resilience to help pregnant women and new mothers stay well
Mary Steen is Professor of Midwifery at the University of South Australia and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Sao Paulo, Brazil and Chester, UK. She qualified as a registered general nurse in 1986 and as a registered midwife in 1988 in the UK. She has a vast amount of nursing and midwifery clinical experience in hospital and community settings. She became interested in research in the 1990s and undertook her first Randomised Controlled Trial in 1993. She is now a well recognised midwifery researcher who has presented at numerous national and international conferences.
She is the Chair of the Mothers, Babies & Families Research Group and facilitates the promotion of research and scholarly activities both nationally and internationally. She is interested in a wide remit of midwifery and family health issues that has led her to undertake research studies and service development projects in developed and developing countries. She has published her work widely and has written numerous articles, chapters and several books. Mary has received several awards for clinical innovation, original research and outstanding services to midwifery.
Seminar 1: Managing relationship conflict when becoming and being a parent.
Relationship conflict and abuse occurs in everyday life and often commences or escalates during pregnancy, which can lead to devastating health and wellbeing consequences. Limited research and development has been undertaken on how to prevent domestic violence. A preventive approach that can enable expectant parents to manage their emotions, behaviour and any relationship conflict would be a valuable tool in limiting the emergence and escalation of new and continuing cycles of abuse during pregnancy and when becoming a new parent.
This presentation will give an overview of a research study that has explored the views and experiences of some parents attending STOP workshops in Leeds, UK.
STOP is a charity that aims to reduce abuse in the home by educating parents to develop some positive life skills. Parents were also asked their views as to what STOP techniques would be helpful to include in the development of an antenatal parenting education workshop. The ‘Becoming and Being a Parent’ workshop was developed and piloted at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, UK. An impact evaluation and follow up interviews demonstrated that parents developed and implemented some STOP techniques to enable them to manage relationship conflict positively during the early transition stage to parenthood. Further research is being planned to build upon this initial research study and will be commencing shortly in South Australia.
Seminar 2: Building resilience to help pregnant women and new mothers stay well
Pregnant women and new mothers are at increased risk of developing a mental health problem or exacerbating an existing one. Developing skills and coping strategies to be resilient during pregnancy and when becoming a mother are essential for maintaining maternal mental health. Recently, a resilience model to promote mental health focusing upon wellbeing, coping strategies and social connections has been developed.
This presentation will give an overview of a mixed methods study undertaken that evaluated and explored pregnant women, new mothers and key stakeholder views and experiences of the Mind Charity building resilience for mental health program. Data was gathered by a pre and post survey, individual and focus group interviews.
Findings demonstrated that pregnant women and new mothers developed and maintained resilience. The resilience model promoted engagement in positive activities and helped to build social connections and reduce social isolation. Learning coping strategies about mood and mind helped participants to build resilience to stay well. This study supports the need to work much closer with non-government organisations.