Midwife-led Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Perinatal Depression. Multisite RCT

The structured approach of Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CBI) is beneficial inreducing Perinatal Depression (PND). It empowers women with practical skills to managestress beyond the treatment period, foster resilience, and improve coping abilities. CBIincreases assertiveness and strengthens relationships, which encourages women to seeksupport. Its behavioral activation component reduces social withdrawal through promotingengagement in supportive activities such as mother support groups and peer networks.Despite CBI yielding meaningful healthcare benefits and reducing PND, its applicabilityusing non‐mental healthcare professionals has not been tested in Ethiopia. Leveragingmidwives to deliver CBI may be an alternative strategy to narrow the significant unmetneed for mental health care. Moreover, midwives are uniquely positioned to deliver CBIinterventions for PND due to their accessibility across the maternal health carecontinuum and their trusted relationships with mothers.The intervention has a pre‐specified session duration and frequency, which may ensureconsistency, fidelity, and replicability across providers and settings. It is alsoexpected to enhance adaptability for delivery by non‐mental health care professionals,for low‐resource settings, where access to specialized mental health services is limited.