Mothers were eligible to participate if they did not require the use
of an interpreter, and reported one or more
of the following risk factors for poor maternal or
child outcomes in their responses to routine standardised psychosocial and domestic violence screening conducted by midwives for every mother booking in to the local hospital for confinement: maternal age under 19 years; current probable distress (assessed as an Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) 17 score
of 10 or more)(as a lower cut - off score was used than the antenatal validated cut - off score for depression, the term «distress» is used rather than «depression»; use
of this cut - off to indicate those distressed approximated the
subgroups labelled in other trials as «psychologically
vulnerable» or as having «low psychological resources» 14); lack
of emotional and practical support; late antenatal care (after 20 weeks gestation); major stressors in the past 12 months; current substance misuse; current or history
of mental health problem or disorder; history
of abuse in mother's own childhood; and history
of domestic violence.