The Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS) hosted the XIII Perinatal Mental Health Conference on May 15th and 16th, 2025. This event, organized by the Spanish Society of Perinatal Mental Health (MARES), brought together professionals from different disciplines to address the latest advances in the research, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders related to pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
The Perinatal IBiS-Lab research group, led by Dr. Emma Motrico, organized and also participated actively in these sessions. Dr. Motrico hosted the opening lecture, “Maternal Stress during Pregnancy and Adverse Outcomes in Offspring”, with Dr. Rafael Caparrós, from the University of Granada, as a speaker.
The e-Perinatal Team also presented the results of patient and public involvement (PPI) in the e-Perinatal project, focusing on barriers, facilitators, and impacts. This study was conducted by Team researchers Rosalba Company, Paula de Juan, Stephanie Carretero, Carlos Barquero, Roberto Cruz and Emma Motrico. The outcome highlighted the importance of strategies which strengthen collaborative participation, particularly of families and professionals, in designing and implementing perinatal health interventions.
In addition, the Team shared “Adaptation into Spanish of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) in the perinatal context: Preliminary results”, which had the objective of culturally adapting the BPNSFS to the Spanish perinatal context and to preliminarily evaluate its factorial structure, reliability, and external validity. The results were positive and proved a potentially useful procedure of the Scale during the perinatal period in the Spanish context.
The project “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Preventive Interventions on Perinatal Depression: Protocol of the METAPSY e-Perinatal Study” was also presented with a poster in the Conference. The project is being developed at the moment and involves a creation of a meta-analytic research methodology; the design of a web-based tool for this purpose; and the conduct of analyses and dissemination.
The congress concluded with great news for the e-Perinatal Team. After sharing the study “Designing an Implementation Strategy of a mHealth Intervention in Perinatal Mental Health: an Example in the Context of Routine Maternal Care”, the Team researcher Paula de Juan was awarded with the Best Poster Prize.
Organizing and participating in this inspiring congress was a pleasure for the e-Perinatal Team. The encouraging work of professionals, researchers and families help us build a future where mental well-being during pregnancy and postpartum becomes a priority.
