Mamas Saludables, Familias Saludables (Healthy

Moms, Healthy Families): Support Group Designed

for Latinas With Postpartum Depression Symptoms

Paper Presentation

Purpose for the Program

This presentation will describe the design, imple-

mentation, and evaluation of an innovative

postpartum depression support group for primarily

low-income and Spanish-speaking Latinas. The

theoretically grounded, evidence-based, and cul-

turally speci¢c program, Mamas Saludablesç

Familias Saludables (Healthy Moms, Healthy Fami-

lies) is in its second year of service.

Proposed Change

The Surgeon General reported that racial and eth-

nic biological di¡erences in depression do not exist.

Instead, ethnicity more likely serves as a proxy vari-

able for factors that do in£uence mental health.

Among others, being poor, the type of neighbor-

hood in which one resides, not having access to

care, or not having culturally sensitive care provid-

ers are problems in the United States that lead to

disparities in access and treatment and greater dis-

ease burden among some ethnic groups compared

with Whites. Despite these disparities, the majority

of community-based intervention e¡orts for depres-

sion during childbearing have not demonstrated

e⁄cacy across cultural, ethnic, or racial groups. To

address this disparity, Healthy Moms, Healthy Fam-

ilies was designed for a group that does not access

traditional mental health services.

Implementation, Outcomes, and Evaluation

A comprehensive literature review identi¢ed the

strongest contributors to postpartum depression and

strategies to consider when creating an ongoing sup-

port group.Care provider and participant preferences

were gathered before implementation. Social support

was selected as the structure for the curriculum. Prin-

ciples of cultural leveraging guided identi¢cation of

weekly topics, methods to convey support, and pro-

gram evaluation strategies.

The experienced group leader was bicultural and

bilingual, and familiar to the participants through

interactions during clinic visits. The postpartum

support group program, consisting of 12 educa-

tional topics, was implemented using a £exible

structure that facilitated the development of

informal support networks among participants.

Throughout the program, participant needs were

assessed and the program was adapted, as

needed, to meet the majority of participants’ needs.

Participant satisfaction was high as indicated by

4100 client contacts during the ¢rst year. While

educational handouts were popular, advice from

other mothers was highly valued.

Implications for Nursing Practice

While demonstration and evaluation projects simi-

lar to Mamas SaludablesçFamilias Saludables

will not address diagnosis and management of de-

pression requiring medications and therapy, the

needs of new mothers who are experiencing less

severe depression symptoms or those who will not

or cannot access formal psychological treatment

can be met through community-based programs.

This may be one of the steps needed to extend the

reach of mental health care services, particularly

for multicultural or multilinguistic groups.

‘‘We Just Did It’’: Eliminating Elective Inductions

Before 39 Weeks

Poster Presentation

Purpose for the Program

The lenses of patient safety, evidence-based

practice, and quality improvement have fo-

cused on inpatient obstetric (OB) care. We were

struggling to comply with several recommended

practice changes in the fall of 2008, when one of

these converging forces, the elimination of elective

inductions before 39 weeks gestation, became

a priority for our 90 bed, inpatient, perinatal unit.

Kathie Records, PhD, RN,

College of Nursing & Health

Innovation, Arizona State

University, Phoenix, AZ

Debra Welborn, MHA, Mari-

copal Integrated Health

System, Phoenix, AZ

Rosie Casillas Young, Mari-

copal Integrated Health

System, Phoenix, AZ

Dean Coonrod, MD, MPH,

District Medical Group, Mari-

copal Integrated Health

System, Phoenix, AZ

Keywordspostpartum depressionsupportHispaniccultural leveragingevidence-based

Childbearing

JOGNN 2011; Vol. 40, Supplement 1 S17

Records, K., Welborn, D., Young, R. C. and Coonrod, D. I N N O V A T I V E P R O G R A M S

Proceedings of the 2011 AWHONN Convention