The Relationship Between Rurality (Distance/ Travel Time to Tertiary maternity Units) and Psychological Well-Being in the Perinatal Period for High Risk Women: The Preparatory Phase of a Nested Case-Control Study

Recent qualitative findings indicate that women’s experience of aspects of maternity care process are related to their psychological well-being. Rural women with complications (“high risk” cases with delivery and perinatal stay in large acute units) emphasised the detrimental impact of travel time, separation and isolation from their families. The research hypothesis is that high risk women from remote rural and from rural settings who deliver in a tertiary unit have poorer measures of perinatal psychological well-being compared with urban high risk women (who live near the unit). This nine month study is the preparatory phase of a prospective nested case control study which will test this hypothesis.

The objectives of this preparatory phase are:

1) to define inclusion and exclusion criteria for eligible high risk women

2) to ascertain throughput & sample size attainment from remote, rural and urban settings

3) to draft the self-complete questionnaire tool, incorporating anxiety/depression tools

4) to gain medical ethical committee approval & pilot the questionnaire

5) to submit outline and a full proposal to an external grant-awarding body

This project is funded by NHS Grampian R&D Office.

Investigators: Dr Norman Smith, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Grampian Universities NHS Trust Dr Janet Tucker, Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health Dr Jane Farmer, Management Studies for Research on Women's Health Anne Fitzmaurice, Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health Tracy Humphrey, Dugald Baird Centre for Research on Women's Health

Research Assistant: Debbie Charles