Mother-infant Bonding in the Brain: a Mindfulness-based Intervention

NCT ID: NCT05830266

Last Updated: 2025-09-19

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

64 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2023-07-01

Study Completion Date

2026-09-30

Brief Summary

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The study investigates the effectiveness of the mindfulness-based intervention "Mindful with your Baby" in women with babies between 5-9 months postpartum who experience heightened levels of postpartum depression, anxiety and/or parental stress. The intervention "Mindful with your Baby" is one of the very few interventions for maternal postnatal mental health issues that takes the bond between mother and infant into account. It is hypothesized that the "Mindful with your Baby" intervention will reduce levels of postpartum depression, anxiety and parental stress, and improve mother-infant behavioral interaction and increase neural synchrony between mother and infant brains.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Postpartum Depression Postpartum Anxiety Parental Stress

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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"Mindful with your Baby" group-based therapist-guided intervention (Intervention group)

Group-based "Mindful with your Baby" therapist-guided intervention via a video-conferencing tool (e.g., Zoom).

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

"Mindful with your Baby" group-based therapist-guided intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

This 8-sessions long intervention is one of very few interventions that actively includes the baby in the therapy sessions. The intervention includes the following sessions: "Becoming aware of the autopilot", "Practice to really look at your baby", "Getting back in touch with yourself", "Responding sensitively to your baby", "Taking care of yourself in the difficult moments", "Distance and proximity: it's both part of it", "Dealing with expectations of yourself and the environment" and "Mindful parenting: trial and error". The intervention is a group-based therapist-guided intervention via a video-conferencing tool (e.g., Zoom).

"Mindful with your baby" self-guided online intervention (Waitlist control group)

The waitlist control group receives an individual self-guided online "Mindful with your baby" intervention after a 10-week waiting period.

Group Type OTHER

"Mindful with your baby" self-guided online intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

This 8-sessions long intervention includes the following sessions: "Autopilot", "Fresh view", "At home in your body", "Responsive versus reactive parenting", "Kindness to yourself", "Distance and proximity", "Boundaries and taking care of yourself" and "Mindful parenting - day by day". The intervention is an individual self-guided online intervention.

Interventions

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"Mindful with your Baby" group-based therapist-guided intervention

This 8-sessions long intervention is one of very few interventions that actively includes the baby in the therapy sessions. The intervention includes the following sessions: "Becoming aware of the autopilot", "Practice to really look at your baby", "Getting back in touch with yourself", "Responding sensitively to your baby", "Taking care of yourself in the difficult moments", "Distance and proximity: it's both part of it", "Dealing with expectations of yourself and the environment" and "Mindful parenting: trial and error". The intervention is a group-based therapist-guided intervention via a video-conferencing tool (e.g., Zoom).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

"Mindful with your baby" self-guided online intervention

This 8-sessions long intervention includes the following sessions: "Autopilot", "Fresh view", "At home in your body", "Responsive versus reactive parenting", "Kindness to yourself", "Distance and proximity", "Boundaries and taking care of yourself" and "Mindful parenting - day by day". The intervention is an individual self-guided online intervention.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Pregnant women (18+y).
* First antenatal visit \< 12 weeks.
* Score above cut off on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the anxiety subscale of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and/or the Parental Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) at 8-10 weeks postpartum.
* Dutch-speaking or understanding Dutch.

Exclusion Criteria

* Gemelli pregnancy (or higher order pregnancy).
* Known endocrine disorder before pregnancy (diabetes-I, Rheumatoid arthritis).
* Severe psychiatric disease (schizophrenia, borderline or bipolar disorder).
* HIV.
* Drug or alcohol addiction problems.
* Any other disease resulting in treatment with drugs that are potentially adverse for the fetus and need careful follow-up during pregnancy.
* No access to the internet.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

FEMALE

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Tilburg University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Marion van den Heuvel

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Marion I van den Heuvel, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Tilburg University

Locations

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Tilburg University

Tilburg, North Brabant, Netherlands

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Netherlands

Central Contacts

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Marion I van den Heuvel, PhD

Role: CONTACT

+31134664085

Facility Contacts

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Marion I van den Heuvel, PhD

Role: primary

+31134664085

Other Identifiers

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222-2022-166

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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