Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review
IntroductionPostpartum depression is a significant global health challenge that affects mothers, infants, and families. Although various preventive strategies show promise, comprehensive reviews evaluating interventions among pregnant women without a clinical diagnosis of depression remain limited....
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Global Women's Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2025.1497740/full |
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| author | Nga Thi Nguyen Nga Thi Nguyen Supa Pengpid |
| author_facet | Nga Thi Nguyen Nga Thi Nguyen Supa Pengpid |
| author_sort | Nga Thi Nguyen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionPostpartum depression is a significant global health challenge that affects mothers, infants, and families. Although various preventive strategies show promise, comprehensive reviews evaluating interventions among pregnant women without a clinical diagnosis of depression remain limited. This scoping review aims to identify and synthesize the existing evidence on proactive postpartum depression prevention programs initiated during pregnancy.MethodsFollowing PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews, we systematically searched PubMed and Scopus, supplemented by manual reference reviews. Our search strategy combined terms related to postpartum depression, pregnancy, and preventive interventions. Studies were included if they evaluated interventions conducted during pregnancy, targeting women without a clinical diagnosis of depression, and assessed PPD outcomes using established diagnostic criteria or validated screening tools. Only English-language articles published between 2013 and 2023 were considered.ResultsA total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions were categorized into nine themes: psychoeducation (n = 18), home visits (n = 6), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (n = 6), mindfulness (n = 6), exercise (n = 4), dietary supplements (n = 3), interpersonal therapy (IPT) (n = 4), consultation (n = 1), and inhalation aromatherapy (n = 1). Psychoeducational and mindfulness-based interventions consistently reduce PPD risk, particularly when delivered in structured, theory-driven formats and incorporating family support. Digital CBT interventions demonstrated limited effectiveness due to lower engagement, while home-visit and consultation-based interventions were effective when integrated into existing maternal healthcare despite scalability challenges. Exercise and dietary supplement interventions yielded inconsistent outcomes, indicating that factors such as adherence, duration, and intensity are crucial determinants of effectiveness.ConclusionVarious proactive interventions are available to prevent PPD, and this scoping review systematically maps the different strategies used and their outcomes. Proactive, theory-based, and multi-component interventions, particularly psychoeducational and mindfulness programs, demonstrate promising potential. Future research should emphasize evaluating long-term outcomes, optimizing digital engagement strategies, and developing culturally tailored models to enhance scalability and accessibility across diverse populations, including low-resource settings. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-746d0f054f204380a666120f85b6cc45 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-5059 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Global Women's Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-746d0f054f204380a666120f85b6cc452025-08-20T03:06:13ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Global Women's Health2673-50592025-04-01610.3389/fgwh.2025.14977401497740Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping reviewNga Thi Nguyen0Nga Thi Nguyen1Supa Pengpid2Department of Health Education and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, ThailandDepartment of Epidemiology- Biostatistics and Demography, Faculty of Public Health, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University, Hue, VietnamDepartment of Health Education and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, ThailandIntroductionPostpartum depression is a significant global health challenge that affects mothers, infants, and families. Although various preventive strategies show promise, comprehensive reviews evaluating interventions among pregnant women without a clinical diagnosis of depression remain limited. This scoping review aims to identify and synthesize the existing evidence on proactive postpartum depression prevention programs initiated during pregnancy.MethodsFollowing PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews, we systematically searched PubMed and Scopus, supplemented by manual reference reviews. Our search strategy combined terms related to postpartum depression, pregnancy, and preventive interventions. Studies were included if they evaluated interventions conducted during pregnancy, targeting women without a clinical diagnosis of depression, and assessed PPD outcomes using established diagnostic criteria or validated screening tools. Only English-language articles published between 2013 and 2023 were considered.ResultsA total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions were categorized into nine themes: psychoeducation (n = 18), home visits (n = 6), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (n = 6), mindfulness (n = 6), exercise (n = 4), dietary supplements (n = 3), interpersonal therapy (IPT) (n = 4), consultation (n = 1), and inhalation aromatherapy (n = 1). Psychoeducational and mindfulness-based interventions consistently reduce PPD risk, particularly when delivered in structured, theory-driven formats and incorporating family support. Digital CBT interventions demonstrated limited effectiveness due to lower engagement, while home-visit and consultation-based interventions were effective when integrated into existing maternal healthcare despite scalability challenges. Exercise and dietary supplement interventions yielded inconsistent outcomes, indicating that factors such as adherence, duration, and intensity are crucial determinants of effectiveness.ConclusionVarious proactive interventions are available to prevent PPD, and this scoping review systematically maps the different strategies used and their outcomes. Proactive, theory-based, and multi-component interventions, particularly psychoeducational and mindfulness programs, demonstrate promising potential. Future research should emphasize evaluating long-term outcomes, optimizing digital engagement strategies, and developing culturally tailored models to enhance scalability and accessibility across diverse populations, including low-resource settings.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2025.1497740/fullpostpartum depressioninterventionpreventionpregnant womenscoping review |
| spellingShingle | Nga Thi Nguyen Nga Thi Nguyen Supa Pengpid Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review Frontiers in Global Women's Health postpartum depression intervention prevention pregnant women scoping review |
| title | Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review |
| title_full | Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review |
| title_fullStr | Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review |
| title_short | Proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non-depressive pregnant women: a comprehensive scoping review |
| title_sort | proactive approaches to preventing postpartum depression in non depressive pregnant women a comprehensive scoping review |
| topic | postpartum depression intervention prevention pregnant women scoping review |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2025.1497740/full |
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