Bringing Baby Home Down Under. A replication of Shapiro & Gottman's original 2005 Randomised Control Study, trialed in an Australian population with 8-10 year follow-up.

Brief name: Bringing Baby Home Down Under. The study is a randomised control, performed as an attempted partial replication and extension of Shapiro & Gottman (2005) doi.org/10.1207/s15327698jfc0501_1, It examined outcomes from ‘Bringing Baby Home’, a psychosocial workshop designed for expectant couples. Participants were recruited from attendees at an Australian suburban general hospital antenatal service. There were no exclusion criteria. Outcomes were measured using 2 of the 3 self-report surveys used in the original study. The original study also video-taped and coded participant couple interactions. The current study did not have the expertise or resourcing to do this. After recruitment, couples were randomised to ‘Workshop’ or ‘Control’. Data was examined as three groups, ‘Workshop’, ‘Control’ and ‘Intermediate’. The 'Intermediate’ group comprises couples who were randomised to ‘Workshop’ but did not complete it. 18 Workshops were delivered monthly over 2 years, each as 2 x 6-7 hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays in a face-to-face group format, with up to 9 couples and a facilitator. All workshops were delivered by the same facilitator, a midwife and antenatal educator with over 20 years experience. As suggested by the developers, the workshops were delivered to couples in third trimester. The workshop is designed as 18 modules. Each opens with a brief didactic overview of its topic area, followed by one or two interactive exercises conducted within couples. A number of the modules are also supported by short videos. The content is 'health-focused' rather than 'problem-focused'. The majority of the modules relate to communication, emotional engagement and regulation, and negotiation. Each concept is anchored in both parent-parent and parent-infant relationships, with delivery including an outline of a normal infant's needs and developing capacities. There are some additional topics (eg, established mitigating factors for post-partum depression, the value of engaged fathers). The facilitator had completed the 3-day facilitator training run by the workshop designers, and had 12 months experience delivering workshop content prior to the study. The workshops were supported by the materials purchased from the Gottman Institute, who developed the workshop. These included the instructor manual, supporting videos, and participant workbooks. As an efficacy study: -no assessment of fidelity was conducted. -there was no formal 'personalisation' of the intervention, however from time to time the facilitator varied the time allocated to particular modules depending on group engagement and participation. The original study concluded follow-up at 12 months post-birth. the current study extends this out to 8-10 years.