Protocol for an intervention for new parents experiencing moderate psychosocial adversity: pilot feasibility randomised trial

Background Parents exposed to psychosocial adversities often experience challenges which, combined with the needs of a new-born infant, can be difficult to manage and increase the risk of poor outcomes for both parents and infants. Psychosocial adversity can disrupt the development of parental-foetal attachment to the baby during pregnancy, which can have a negative effect on parental care and quality of interaction during the postnatal period. This intervention is based on the proposition that enhanced parental capacity to mentalise and emotionally connect to unborn children during pregnancy, and better understanding about how to manage distressing infant behaviour (i.e., persistent crying and sleep problems) will: (i) promote the development of secure parent-infant attachment; (ii) improve antenatal bonding and postnatal parenting; and, (ii) reduce parental distress.