Author: Dr Hannah Slootjes (PhD)

Gosh! It’s been a while between blog updates! I’ve been buried in a systematic review for was seemed like an eon, and am very pleased to be finally emerging on the other side of it. It has been incredible to read so much about how occupational therapists are thinking about women’s health needs during perinatal transitions. There’s an impressively diverse practice field growing out there, which has been inspiring and thought-provoking to no end. The published and grey literature contributions to guide and inform occupational therapist practice is growing. It’s certainly an exciting time for perinatal occupational therapy practice.

Today I stumbled across an adapted model of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which has been interpreted by Meagan Francis to consider the needs of mothers. I love it. Another great source of inspiration to help encourage consideration of what women really need throughout their motherhood transitions, and to reflect how occupational therapists might find a strong fit within maternal health services to support maternal well-being.

Mother’s Hierarchy of Needs

And then this image really caught my attention too… Are we thinking about women’s perinatal needs are in the right way?

We’re up!

Here is the poster presented (with thanks!) at WFOT Congress (South Africa) by my principal supervisor, Dr Carol McKinstry on Thursday, 24 May.

This is the first time presenting very early findings from the case study research! Thank you to Carol for taking this work to South Africa… the ball is really rolling! I can’t wait to get this work completed.

Should OT’s be focussing more on sexual occupations?

And why aren’t we all shouting about helping women improve life quality after POP ?!

I recently read an article about women living with pelvic organ prolapse (POP), and was humbled by a courageous woman sharing her challenging experience of managing the symptoms (CLICK HERE if you’d like to read the article).

Obviously, some of my first reflective thoughts reading this article was; An OT should be helping you with that. Seriously. Where are all of the OT’s? POP must affect so many of our clients in SO many different areas of health service provision. But I’ve never had a client volunteer this kind of issue before. I guess it’s a bit taboo, is it? Do we ever ask the questions? What would we do if someone mentioned it? Would we brush it aside, because it’s a bit awkward and personal?

I was chatting with a Women’s Health Physiotherapist recently – a very candid chat, and fascinatingly brilliant and thought-provoking, can I say?! I was sharing about my research and curiosities, and asked her opinion about where she felt a gap might be for OT’s to add value to women’s perinatal health teams. She sees a huge gap in women’s sexual health. The conversation went on, and so does my thought trail… how much do our social and cultural morays influence our perspective on judging how we are identifying and addressing occupational performance issues in perinatal health? Are we too embarrassed to ask the questions? What do OT’s know about sexual health and wellbeing? Is it our role?

I think so. But what’s there to know….? I guess it’s time I started finding out?

I’m VERY excited to have just found out that our abstract has been accepted for a poster presentation at the WFOT Congress 2018 in South Africa!!!! Super exciting! I do love making posters… hopefully we can make this one will be an absolute cracker to get people interested, involved and talking about what’s happening around the world for OT’s in maternal health. It’s very exciting!

Wow. Talk about feeling rusty! It’s been 6 months since I last worked on my research, and it feels like a lifetime! I’ve just started going back through the interviews and transcriptions, and am again dazzled by the incredible OT’s and women who have been so generous to share their expertise, experiences, thoughts and perspectives with me.

I’m sure so many OT’s will be intrigued to learn about the scope of practice these incredible pioneers have evolved into, to meet the service gaps in maternal health systems. Courageous, inspiring and impressive are the words which spring to mind. I can’t wait to get this research out there!

Delayed update… I have been on maternity leave!

Call it extreme dedication to research, but I’ve had a baby!! I totally forgot to mention it earlier, so please forgive my delayed replies to contact (and thank you for your messages!).

I’ve survived pregnancy, met my darling new baby, and have managed to keep everyone in my little family alive and well (miraculously!) throughout this “perinatal transition”. Having my first kiddo 7 years ago provided the kernel of inspiration to consider how OT’s could be working in maternal health, and this experience has totally provided foundations for the corn field. It’s been like the refresher course for Motivation 101.

Jokes aside, I’m truly grateful for every person and service who/which has supported me in my recent motherhood journey. It’s been amazing, and so life giving! I am looking forward to getting back on track with my research, and am totally re-energised about getting this PhD done.

Thanks for your patience and support! ♥♥♥

At the moment, I’m transcribing and analysing data from the case study interviews, with maternal health OTs and consumers (which I have to say are absolutely incredible!!!).

The big questions on my mind at the moment are:

• How are OTs relating their interventions in maternal health to “occupation”?
• What practice models are OTs needing?
• How are OTs deciding what’s within their scope of practice?
• How are OTs picking service gaps to know where to focus their practice?
• What else should OTs be doing?

I stumbled across a ‘fourth trimester’ practice model yesterday, which I’m really excited about. I wonder how it might be useful for OT practice???

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/26/15872734/what-no-one-tells-new-moms-about-what-happens-after-childbirth

Wowsers. What an exciting week! Finally we have a few international OTs to be interviewed for the case study, and a consumer!!! Best news. I’m so excited!!

On Facebook this morning in the WomensHealth4OT group, there’s so much talk about how people are increasingly becoming more aware of the occupational performance issues women face during perinatal transitions, and recognising the emerging role for OTs to support these women. Just so inspiring and motivating to read and learn about people’s perspectives and thoughts!

Interestingly, I interviewed an OT this week who had a completely different perspective on their role in maternal health… it made me really reconsider my own biases. Yes, I totally can see a clear, simple and massively broad/holistic role for OTs in maternal health. But I hadn’t really considered what happens when men are the primary carer for a newborn. Should the OT role be reconsidered as the OT role in primary parenting? Is there a role for OTs in men’s health (supporting new dad’s)??? I’ll keep it in my mind, and see where the research findings take me… What a journey this is!

I’ve just had the good fortune to connect with another OT who is researching the role of OT in maternal health. We’re on slightly different paths with our research directions, but it’s such a great feeling to connect with others who share a similar vision. If anyone is interested, Grace Branjerdporn is a PhD candidate with University of Queensland, and is on Twitter (@GraceBranOT).

I wish I could get along to see her present on “Maternal-fetal attachment: Optimising fetal wellbeing through bonding with the unborn child” at the  Optimising Fetal Wellbeing conference in Melbourne on 6 May. Sounds so interesting!

https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?embed&eid=258608

I’ve just started searching for articles for the systematic review. Oooooh. What a laborious process! Pun intended. Great to see some new articles I wasn’t aware of previously… I’m delighted to learn there’s more research emerging about the role of occupational therapy in maternal health! Keep it coming!