Establishment of mental care support for midwives in the midwife-led perinatal care clinic

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For the purpose of establishing a mental care system by midwives who work at midwife-led perinatal care clinics, first, we carried out a survey in order to understand the conditions at the midwife-led perinatal psychological care clinic in Tohoku University Hospital at which a mental care system has already been organized by midwives. We found that the users had often various risk factors of postpartum depression (PPD)in the survey. Second, we carried out a substantial investigation for the expectant and nursing mothers who used midwife-led perinatal care clinics and for the midwives who worked at the clinics in Miyagi Prefecture. We found from the results of the questionnaire investigation that they were mentally unstable. The result of the interview investigation showed that they did not receive enough support from their husband and their mother, who became the center of support. From these findings, we carried out an intervention study regarding the mental care system for midwives who worked at midwife-led perinatal care clinics. After a clinical psychologist intervened in order to alleviate the problems with the midwives, the number of the midwives who could provide good support for the expectant and nursing mothers significantly increased