CIMTR Webinar - Community Based Singing for Perinatal Mental Health, Professor Lauren Stewart
On Monday 18th May, we welcomed Professor Lauren Stewart, Goldsmiths, with her lecture ‘A Community Based Singing for Perinatal Mental Health in The Gambia: Developing and Trialling an Intervention’. Perinatal mental health problems affect up to 1 in 5 women worldwide and affect not only the mother but can also have long-term adverse effects on her child. It is thus of high priority to develop new low-cost, low-resource, non-stigmatising and culturally appropriate approaches to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression perinatally. This presentation relates to a current GCRF funded study investigating how a culturally embedded group singing intervention could be beneficial in alleviating perinatal mental distress in The Gambia. Pregnant women in the intervention participated in weekly singing sessions, led by local ‘Kanyeleng’ singing groups, for six weeks while the control group received standard care. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured using self-report questionnaires.
