Author: Dr Hannah Slootjes (PhD)

I'm an occupational therapist, women's health researcher, academic, writer, mum, and passionate life learner. In 2022, I completed PhD exploring how OTs globally do, could or should work to promote health and maintain wellbeing for mothers during and after pregnancy, and matrescence. Titled, 'The Role of Occupational Therapists in Perinatal Health' my thesis introduced the Person-centered Occupational Model of Matrescence (POMM) to understand women's wellbeing from a human-centered approach, and the Functional Co-occupation Spectrum (FCS) for working with mother-infant dyads. I am currently teaching occupational therapy and public health students at La Trobe University, and writing a textbook about working with women during perinatal stages and matrescence based on my thesis (aiming for publication in 2024). I still love clinical practice, and work in women's health locally in Bendigo. After taking a year-long sabbatical to recover and re-energise after completing my PhD, I'm rolling up my sleeves and gearing up for the next life chapter! I'm still writing and teaching, and will be increasing practice-based supports for OTs from this website from May 2023. I am so looking forward to reconnecting with OTs practicing and researching in this space, and cannot wait to be part of the next phase of practice-based professional development!

How do we measure “well-being”?

Interviews are ongoing! I’m just relishing in hearing what perinatal OT’s do! It’s just so vast… our capacity to offer holistic services to this unique population is nothing short of impressive. It’s becoming clearer to me how much scope there is for OT’s to exercise their full scope of practice potential in maternal health. It’s simply enormous!
Today’s interview made me really reflect on how we measure ‘well-being’. We know it’s important, but how do we measure it to validate and justify our practice?? Then I was pointed in the direction of this really interesting journal article by Ingvild Aune, Unn Dahlberg, and Gørill Haugan, published in Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare (2016), 8; 6–12. It’s has offered me even more food for thought…
The abstract reads:
“Salutogenesis focuses on identifying the causes of health rather than the causes of illness, and in this way offers a health promotion framework for maternity services. The application of salutogenesis theory in empirical studies of healthy women in maternity care appears to be rare, and mostly incomplete. The objective of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) assessing sense of coherence (SOC) in a population of healthy Norwegian women during the postnatal period”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286239274_Sense_of_coherence_among_healthy_Norwegian_women_in_postnatal_care_Dimensionality_reliability_and_construct_validity_of_the_Orientation_to_Life_Questionnaire?actorId=3313136

Inspiring interviews…

The more interviews I do with OTs in maternal health, the more I am realising how entrepreneurial OTs are in applying their full scope of practice skills to support maternal health clients. It’s truly inspiring to hear how these OTs are using what they know to embrace their work role and navigate health systems to meet the unique needs of pregnant women and new mothers. I’m beyond impressed by the professional integrity of these individuals – thank you for inspiring me to keep motivated with the research. I can’t wait to hear more stories…

First blog!

This is the excerpt for your very first post.

I’ve started this blog to communicate and connect with people who are interested in the research I’m doing as part of a PhD at La Trobe Uni in Bendigo, Victoria. I’ve taken the plunge, and have embarked on full-time study this year! Surely it can only pay off…?!

I’m passionate about learning everything there is to know about the role of OT in maternal health, and hearing the thoughts of others on this emerging area of practice.

The more people I’m connecting with on this journey, the more I’m aware of OTs around to world who are passionate about working with women during maternal health transitions. I hope this blog will help these OTs to consider and share their thoughts with me about research directions they think might be worthwhile exploring, and communicating with them about what stage of research I’m up to.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes…!

Publications:

Slootjes, H., McKinstry, C., & Kenny, A. (2015). Maternal role transition: Why new mothers need occupational therapists. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, doi:10.1111/1440-1630.12225. http://t.co/wtljq9FKML

 

Interviews with maternal health OTs have begun!

This is the excerpt for your very first post.

There’s been such a wonderful response to the invitations for maternal health OTs to participate in the case study research. I’m blown away by the richness of the role, and how passionate these OTs are about the work they’re doing. It’s truly inspiring! I can’t wait to hear more…!