Moving research forward
Dr. Stuebe, who is a distinguished scholar of infant and young child feeding in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC, described the 4th Trimester Project as “not a be all and end all,” but rather as an opportunity to “specifically engage moms to tell us what we’re not telling them or what they wish we would tell them in the postpartum period.”
After the first in-person meeting of the project participants in March 2016, the investigators will stage a series of webinars and discussion groups aimed at refining specific research projects before the participants reconvene in person in March 2017.
The project recently got a boost when the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) approved $248,594 in funding for the research.
“This will hopefully launch a whole series of research projects, whether funded through PCORI or through other research mechanisms, to drive the work forward,” Dr. Verbiest said.
One such project, for example, could compare the effectiveness of a postpartum doula coming to a mother’s house versus offering her postpartum support by phone.
“Part of what we hope in the long term from this PCORI work is to ask, ‘If moms felt really supported during the postpartum period, what questions would we need to ask to show that we’re doing it well?’” Dr. Stuebe said. “If there were a quality of postpartum care questionnaire, what would we want moms to check?”