The Effect of Grandmothers’ Presence on the Provision of Multidisciplinary Perinatal Support for Pregnant and Postpartum Women with Psychosocial Problems (2019)

Michi Ogawa,1 Tasuku Hashimoto,1,2 Mami Tanaka,3 Masumi Tachibana,1 Ryota Seki,1 Aiko Sato,4 Jun Okayama,5 Mamiko Endo,6 Naoki Saito,7 Yasunori Sato,8 Hiroyuki Watanabe,9,10 Michiko Nakazato,1,11 Emi Mori,12 Makio Shozu,13 Masaomi Iyo1 1Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 2Department of Psychiatry, Satsuki-kai Sodegaura-Satsukidai Hospital, Chiba, Japan; 3Center for Forensic Mental Health, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 4Department of Psychiatry, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan; 5Department of Maternal‐Fetal Medicine, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan; 6Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 7Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 8Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan; 9Division of Medical Treatment and Rehabilitation, Center for Forensic Mental Health, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 10Department of Psychiatry, Gakuji-kai Kimura Hospital, Chiba, Japan; 11Department of Psychiatry, International University of Health and Welfare Atami Hospital, Atami, Japan; 12Department of Health Promotion Nursing, Graduate School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan; 13Department of Reproductive Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, JapanCorrespondence: Tasuku HashimotoDepartment of Psychiatry, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, JapanTel +81-43-226-2148Fax +81-43-226-2150Email t-hashimoto@faculty.chiba-u.jpBackground: Pregnant and postpartum women with psychosocial problems are prone to face limited or absent perinatal functional support from biological grandmothers due to familial dysfunction. The study aimed to investigate whether the involvement and presence of biological maternal grandmothers providing practical support for their pre/postnatal daughters (ie, pregnant women) during the perinatal period may influence the number of support services provided by multidisciplinary agencies, including child consultation centers and municipal offices.Participants and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study based on the medical records of all pregnant women with psychosocial problems that visited, gave birth, and received intervention from the hospital-based child protection unit at the Chiba University Hospital between February 2018 to March 2019. The primary outcome was to identify whether there was a difference in the number of multidisciplinary agencies providing perinatal support between pregnant women with and without the presence of functional support from biological maternal grandmothers during the perinatal period.Results: We identified 114 pregnant and postpartum women with psychosocial problems. Seventy-six of these participants (66.7%) had functional support from their biological maternal grandmothers during the perinatal period, and 38 participants (33.3%) did not. The number of agencies involved with participants who lacked functional support was significantly higher than participants with functional support (t(55.14) = 2.98, p &lt; 0.01). This finding was consistent among pregnant and postpartum primipara participants (n = 70) (t(68) = 3.87, p &lt; 0.001), but not multipara (n = 44).Conclusion: The findings indicate that the presence and functional support of biological maternal grandmothers influence the support that is needed from multidisciplinary perinatal support systems by pregnant and postpartum women with psychosocial problems. Primipara mothers without support from their own mothers may need greater multidisciplinary support.Keywords: child maltreatment, grandmother, perinatal, postpartum, pregnancy, psychosocial