Establishing a Screening Tool for Early Detection of PTSD following Complicated Childbirth

Establishing a Screening Tool for Early Detection of PTSD following Complicated Childbirth is sponsored by NIH NICHD. Develops a screening tool for early detection of PTSD in women after traumatic childbirth experiences.

Establishing a Screening Tool for Early Detection of PTSD following Complicated Childbirth Project Number 1R01HD119967-01 PROJECT SUMMARY: Maternal mental health disorders are the leading identifiable cause of childbirth-related maternal death in the U.S. and a significant contributor to maternal morbidity and health disparities.

Among these disorders, childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) remains an underdiagnosed and debilitating condition. CB-PTSD affects approximately 240,000 American women annually who experience traumatic childbirth. It is marked by symptoms that emerge soon after delivery and are triggered by reminders of the traumatic birth, with the child often becoming an unfortunate symptom enhancer.

This dynamic can impair mother-infant bonding during critical developmental stages. The urgency of addressing CB-PTSD is heightened by its intersection with life-threatening complications during childbirth and severe maternal morbidity (SMM), which are highest in the U.S. among Western countries and disproportionately affect minoritized women.

Hence, the need to understand and mitigate the psychological aftermath of medically complicated childbirth. Despite recommendations for universal maternal mental health screening in U.S. hospitals, no tools currently exist to identify women at risk for CB-PTSD before symptoms fully develop. This proposal seeks to address this critical gap by developing an innovative, multi-modal screening tool for early detection of CB-PTSD.

Leveraging the unique opportunity afforded by childbirth trauma, a clearly defined event with early symptom onset, we propose a prospective, longitudinal study to assess women with complicated, potentially traumatic deliveries. Beginning in the first postpartum days, we will collect oral unstructured short childbirth narratives at the bedside depicting the subjective birth experience.

We will measure psychophysiological responses during recollection of the childbirth trauma using validated methods to assess objective emotional reactivity. Obstetrical data, a proxy of the magnitude of the traumatic childbirth event, will be obtained from electronic medical records.

Participants will be followed at multiple postpartum time points (Week 2, and Months 1, 3, 6) to assess acute and chronic CB-PTSD via validated psychometric tools and diagnostics. In our prior work, the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) models to detect CB-PTSD via childbirth narratives is demonstrated. We will expand this innovative line of research in this application.

Using state-of-the-art AI and large language models (LLMs), we will analyze these narratives and develop a machine learning framework that integrates subjective accounts, objective physiological markers, and obstetrical indicators to predict CB-PTSD risk.

The anticipated outcomes include a cost-effective, scalable screening tool to identify CB-PTSD risk early, enabling timely interventions and setting a new standard for trauma-focused postpartum mental health care. This project addresses an unmet clinical need, aligning with national priorities to reduce adverse maternal and child outcomes and to mitigate racial disparities in maternal health.

Public Health Relevance Statement PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Medically complicated, traumatic deliveries, which result in severe maternal and neonatal morbidities, have short- and long-term consequences for maternal health and are highest in the US among Western countries, disproportionally affect minoritized women.

Beyond the physical toll, complicated deliveries significantly increase the risk for developing childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD), a mental illness that can undermine both maternal and infant health and deter future pregnancies.

This study aims to establish a cost- effective screener of individuals likely to develop CB-PTSD that could be implemented in postpartum units, laying the foundation for holistic perinatal care that supports women following birth trauma. No NIH Spending Category available.

Acute Address Adverse event Affect American Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence enhanced Biological Birth Birth trauma Caring Child Childbirth Chronic Clinical Cognitive Collection Computerized Medical Record Country Coupled Data Detection Development Diagnosis Diagnostic Discipline of obstetrics Disease Early Diagnosis Early identification Emotional Enhancers Event Feasibility Studies Foundations Fright Future Galvanic Skin Response Guidelines Health Care Costs Heart Rate High Risk Woman Hospitalization Hospitals Imagery Impairment Individual Infant Infant Care Infant Health Intervention Life Linguistics Maternal Health Maternal Health Services Maternal Mortality Measures Mental Health Mental Health Services Mental disorders Meta-Analysis Methods Minority Women Modeling Mothers Oral Outcome Participant Pathway interactions Pattern Perinatal Care Physiological Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Postpartum Period Pregnancy Preventive care Proxy Psychometrics Psychophysiology Recommendation Reduce health disparities Research Risk Screening procedure Severities Stress Symptoms Time Trauma Woman Work adverse pregnancy outcome artificial intelligence based artificial intelligence model clinically relevant cognitive process cost cost effective delivery complications disorder risk disparities in morbidity early screening effective intervention experience follow-up health assessment health disparity improved infant outcome innovation insight large language model longitudinal, prospective study machine learning classifier machine learning framework machine learning model maternal condition maternal morbidity maternal outcome medical complication multimodal learning multimodality neonatal morbidity neural obstetrical complication predictive modeling psychiatric symptom psychologic public health relevance racial disparity response screening severe maternal morbidity stress related disorder stressor tool traumatic stress verbal [Adult Lifespan Psychopathology Study Section[ALP]](https://public.

csr. nih. gov/StudySections/StandingStudySections) Administering Institutes or Centers Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Assistance Listing Number Project Funding Information for 2025 No Sub Projects information available for 1R01HD119967-01 Publications are associated with projects, but cannot be identified with any particular year of the project or fiscal year of funding.

This is due to the continuous and cumulative nature of knowledge generation across the life of a project and the sometimes long and variable publishing timeline. Similarly, for multi-component projects, publications are associated with the parent core project and not with individual sub-projects.

No Publications available for 1R01HD119967-01 No Patents information available for 1R01HD119967-01 The Project Outcomes shown here are displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health. NIH has not endorsed the content below.

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