Supporting pregnant women and new mothers with mental illness

Ms Heather Gilbert

Heather Gilbert co-ordinates The National Register of Antipsychotic Medication in Pregnancy (NRAMP), which is now in its 10th year.

She is undertaking a PhD at MAPrc, part time, supervised by Professor Jayashri Kulkarni and Dr Caroline Gurvich. Her PhD is embedded within NRAMP,  and is planned to add to this important work.

Heather's PhD topic is 'Developing a new model of support for pregnant women and new mothers with mental illness'. Her first paper has been published, and is about the special issues facing pregnant women with mental illnesses, increasing clinical awareness, encouraging risk assessment and promoting management planning, by using an integrated model of care in support of women during pregnancy and in early motherhood.

Reference: Gilbert H, Gurvich C, Kulkarni J (2015) Special Issues for Pregnant Women with Mental Illness. J Nurs Care 4:280. doi: 10.4172/2167-1168.1000280

Publication: Cost effectiveness of chlamydia screening for pregnant women aged 16-25 years attending an antenatal service

Image: sexetc.org

Is it worth testing all young pregnant women for chlamydia? This study argues that it is.

Using clinical data from a previous study, and outcomes data from the literature, the authors modelled the short-term perinatal (12-month time horizon) incremental direct costs and outcomes from a government (as the primary third-party funder) perspective for chlamydia screening. Costs were derived from the Medicare Benefits Schedule, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and average cost-weights reported for hospitalisations classified according to the Australian refined diagnosis-related groups.