Postpartum depression (PPD) is one of the most common complications of childbirth yet just 1 in 10 mothers with PPD receive evidence-based treatment. Postpartum depression is an ideal candidate for prevention because it is common, the window of opportunity to intervene is clear (pregnancy), and its risk factors are well-established and easily identifiable. Furthermore, women are in frequent contact with the healthcare system during pregnancy and are more motivated to improve their health during this period than at any other time in their lives.

Given high rates of PPD and its adverse effects on mothers and their families, and the relative lack of efficient, effective psychotherapeutic interventions for preventing PPD, safe, novel, and efficient preventive interventions are needed. Since large 1-day workshops appear to successfully treat depression, given the widespread interest and investment of public health units across Canada in maternal and child health, Online 1-Day CBT-Based Workshops for Preventing PPD should be developed and tested for their ability to prevent PPD in Canadian women.

Based on longstanding clinical work with women at high risk for PPD, the development of a successful 1-Day CBT-Based Treatment Workshop for PPD and its delivery in-person and online, and an extensive review of the PPD prevention literature, we will develop the content for our prevention workshop as well as an accompanying script and intervention manual for participants (Objective 1). We will then advertise and assess the feasibility of recruiting 30 women into the workshops and seek feedback on its content, delivery, and assessment procedures (Objective 2). Using these data, we will revise our workshop, and utilizing our experience recruiting women in community settings into CBT treatment studies for PPD, conduct a full randomized controlled trial (n=408) and assess the effectiveness of these workshops at reducing the likelihood of developing PPD in those at risk (Objective 3).