Discussion
The postnatal period is a time when mothers are at
heightened risk of fatigue and other mental health
difficulties given the demands of early infant caregiving,
sleep disruption, recovery from birth, and
reduced opportunities to engage in self-care behaviors
that protect health and well-being. WAP
is a psychoeducational intervention designed to
strengthen parents’ engagement in health and
self-care behaviors in the postnatal period to prevent
and manage fatigue and other well-being difficulties.
Not surprisingly, the effects ofWAP were strongest
for those outcomes likely to respond to intervention
in the short term. In this instance,
mothers’ attitudes toward their health and selfcare
behaviors were significantly, positively affected
by the intervention. In both intervention
arms, mothers reported improved self-efficacy to
engage in health and self-care behaviors postintervention
and at follow-up. Improved self-efficacy
to engage in health behaviors underpins individual
intention and volition toward health behavior
change (Ajzen, 1991; Bandura, 1997; Latham &
Locke, 1991; Rosenstock et al., 1988) and is therefore
a key element of health-promotion interventions.
In addition, WAP was effective in promoting mothers’ self-efficacy to prioritize, plan for, and engage
in self-care and health behaviors including
those promoted in WAP (e.g., reducing daily demands,
improving the quality of diet and exercise,
healthy sleep routine, realistic parenting expectations,
improving social support and help-seeking).
It may be that giving mothers “permission” to prioritize
and plan for self-care on a daily basis is effective
in supporting them to recognize their needs
and feel positive about meeting them.
Even in a self-directed format, strategies such as
those in WAP might assist postpartum mothers to
prioritize their own well-being and recognize that
it is as important as meeting the needs of their
infants. The strategies offered in WAP are simple
and can be optimally tailored and planned around
what is realistic for each mother on a daily or
weekly basis. This too may support mothers’ to feel
more efficacious following intervention as they are
presented with manageable strategies that can be
enacted independently, immediately while caring
for infants, and are sustainable over time.
For a health promotion intervention to be considered
effective, improvements to self-efficacy need
to translate to intention and uptake of desirable
health behaviors (Ajzen, 1991; Bandura, 1997).
Compared to mothers in the control group, parents
in the professionally-led telephone support
intervention reported higher intention to engage
in self-care and higher engagement in self-care
behaviors postintervention. Importantly, the improvement
in mothers’ engagement in health and
self-care behaviors was sustained at follow-up for
those who received the professionally-led telephone
support intervention. These results were
consistently associated with medium to large effect sizes. Mothers in the professionally-led telephone
support intervention also reported a reduction
in perceived barriers to engage in health
behaviors which was approaching significance.
These findings suggest that the delivery of WAP in
a professionally-led, supported format was more
effective than a parent self-directed mode of delivery.
This is not surprising. Given the competing
demands of the postpartum period, mothers’
capacity to engage in health and self-care
behaviors is likely to be rapidly eroded without external
support. The professionally-led mode of delivery
included an initial home visit, where rapport
was established, and then three brief, weekly telephone
follow-up sessions (with the same health
professional). These sessions were not therapeutic
but rather provided opportunities for positive
reinforcement, encouragement, and problem solving
for mothers to engage with WAP content and
implement the strategies. They also ensured that
WAP was delivered in a timely, staged manner,
likely to be associated with manageable, reasonable
expectations for behavior change from weekto-
week. This too may have strengthened parents’
self-efficacy, intention, and ultimately their motivation
to engage in self-care behaviors.
Despite these promising findings, participation in
WAP was associated with few changes in symptoms
and severity of fatigue or with improvements
in maternal mental health. There are several plausible
explanations for this. Firstly, given the relatively
small numbers in each study group and
the likely changes affected by participation to be
small, the study may have lacked statistical power
to detect small, butmeaningful treatment effects in
maternal fatigue, depression, anxiety and stress.
Indeed, when the ITT analyses were performed
with missing data imputed, the power of the study
was improved. In the ITT analyses, findings were
that those who received the professionally-led
telephone support had fewer symptoms of depression
postintervention than the waitlist control
group, and fewer symptoms of anxiety and stress
compared to the self-directed written group. Notably,
at follow-up, symptoms of fatigue and anxiety
were significantly fewer in the professionallyled
telephone support group compared to the
waitlist control group. Improved statistical power
via a larger sample size in the complete case analyses
may have revealed smaller, important treatment
effects that are not presently detectable.
Secondly, the follow-up time after intervention was
relatively short. Participants provided follow-up
data on average 2 to 3 months after completing
the final intervention session. Short-term effects,
where present, were likely to be measurable
in that time (e.g., intention, behaviors). However,
the effects of those improved health behaviors
on long-term or secondary outcomes such as
mental health and fatigue may not have been detectable
in the follow-up period of 2–3 months for
an intervention of low intensity. The evaluation of
a fatigue management intervention by Troy and
Dalgas-Pelish (2003) had a similarly brief followup
period, and they also did not find a reduction
in fatigue symptoms. A longer follow-up period
may be required to observe any meaningful
changes in mental health and fatigue associated
with strengthened self-care and health behaviors.
It is also possible, however, that intervention effects
may not be sustained over a longer period,
particularly without professional support.
Thirdly, WAP was delivered to a universal sample
of parents. Mothers were not selected into the
study based on inclusion criteria such as persistent
fatigue, low mood, or high stress and anxiety
symptoms. Our purpose was to ascertain
the efficacy of WAP when delivered to an unselected
sample of parents accessing a universal
health care service (i.e., maternal and child
health services). This approach reflects how an
intervention such as WAP might be used in primary
health care where it is routinely offered to
all parents in the postpartum, delivered with support
from a health professional such as their maternal
and child health nurse. However, delivery
of WAP to a targeted sample may be more effective
in terms of delivering outcomes and balancing
cost-effectiveness. Stronger treatment effectsmay
have been observed if all participants were experiencing
high fatigue at baseline. In this study,
some parents reported minimal fatigue at baseline,
and therefore, little improvement was likely to
be detected over time. Fourth, parenting an infant
is characterized by sleep disruption, poor sleep
quality, and limited (or no) discretionary time within
which to rest and recover. Although supporting
mothers’ capacity to adjust to these demands is a
valuable strategy, it is plausible that some fatigue
in the postpartum remains unresolved until infant
sleep routines are established consistently.
Finally, the mean infant age when mothers entered
the study was 3 months, with participation in the intervention
occurring in the following 2 to 3 months.
Across this stage of infancy, sleeping, settling,
and feeding patterns become increasingly established
(Anders & Keener, 1985; Michelsson,
Rinne, & Paajanen, 1990), and many mothers may experience an improvement in fatigue and overall
well-being at this time. This may also make it difficult
to detect changes in fatigue over time across
the intervention groups.