Congratulations go out to Dr. Manon Ranger, Dr. Saima Hirani and Dr. Rubee Dev and their research teams, whose combined multi-year grants for their Canadian Institute of Health Research-funded projects total over $1M.
February 3, 2025
Dr. Saima Hirani and Dr. Rubee Dev (co-PI)
Co-development and Evaluation of Video Resources to Support Racialized Women's Postpartum Mental Health
Co-Investigators: Annette J Browne; Michelle T Carter; Rasheedatu Yakubu
$ 302,174 (3 years)
Almost one-quarter of women in Canada report postpartum depression and related mental health issues after childbirth. This has been more common among racialized women who face socioeconomic disadvantages. In addition to facing barriers in accessing healthcare and social services, poor postpartum mental health literacy (MHL) among racialized women can lead to difficulty in identifying postpartum mental health issues and seeking help to prevent and address them. This in turn leads to negative consequences not only for mothers but for their children's and families' health. Despite the ongoing efforts taken to mitigate the postpartum mental health burden in Canada, the racialized mothers' needs are unmet. This calls our attention to collaboratively work with racialized women to understand their unique postpartum mental health needs and seek out their help to design customized interventions to improve women's postpartum MHL and help-seeking attitudes.
Our study aims to bridge this gap by engaging racialized mothers and other knowledge users from British Columbia, Canada. We will
- explore the perspectives of racialized women about their postpartum MHL needs and experiences of help-seeking;
- explore the perspectives of health care and community service providers about the facilitators and barriers that shape racialized mothers' experiences accessing and utilizing existing mental health resources;
- co-develop a series of mental health support video resources with mothers; and
- assess the usability and applicability of the video intervention among racialized postpartum women for its future expansion.
Through this project, racialized women will receive an opportunity to have their voices heard and partake in suggesting solutions for promoting their MHL and confidence in seeking support. The findings of this study will guide our future research work in reducing the burden of postpartum mental health problems and their impacts.
Dr. Manon Ranger
Co-PI: Tremblay, Sophie (Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics)
Determining the neuroprotective effects of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 on neurodevelopmental impairments related to neonatal pain and sucrose-induced inflammatory stress
$ 734,400 (5 years)
In Canada, about 30,000 babies are born 2 to 4 months early (prematurely) every year. When these newborns are cared for in the hospital, they may undergo numerous medically required painful procedures every day and experience hundreds of stressful and painful events before they go home. Exposure to pain in these immature babies has negative effects on their developing brain.
One standard way to diminish pain is to give a few drops of sugar water during mildly painful procedures. During the baby's hospital stay, this can amount to a lot of sugar. We still do not know enough about the safety of giving sugar in combination with pain. It is possible that receiving sugar to treat pain over many days may cause inflammation and we aim to examine this possibility. It is also possible that this exposure early on in their development may affect growth hormones.
- We will study sugar water treatment with pain in baby mice to determine if there are negative effects on brain development and their behaviour, and determine if inflammation may be causing these effects.
- We will also test if giving a growth hormone treatment can help protect the developing brain.
Effectively treating pain in immature newborns translates to improved outcomes on their immediate stability and later development, with lasting benefits throughout their lives. This research is essential to provide the best care practices and improve the health of babies born prematurely in Canada and worldwide.
