Maternity in poverty contexts: detection of psycho-social risk situations during the perinatal period

Abstract

Perinatal Psychology is a specific area of psychology that works with the beginning of life and its related problematic situations. The article presents a research regarding the detection of risk situations in perinatal mental health and the specific characteristics of these situations in populations at risk due to poverty. The objective of the study is to detect psycho-social risk situations that would allow preventive interventions during the perinatal period. In order to assessthe psycho social variables related to birth, the Perinatal Psychological Interview (PPI) was administrated (during the years 2015 and 2017). The sample is composed by 2160 mother-baby dyads: from the maternity department (791 dyads) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (1279dyads) of the hospital Mi pueblo in F. Varela, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 36,5% of the sample was detected as at psycho-social perinatal risk. Also, we could discriminate 9 types of psycho-social perinatal risk, in which the main types of risk were social-family risk and in second place risk related to non-nesting. The possibility of early detection of psycho-social risk situations during the perinatal period allows the development of effective preventive interventions that aim to enhanceperinatal health.