Ethics Statement 

Background information on our research:

At New Life Classes our vision is to positively impact postnatal depression rates and eradicate feelings of failure by delivering midwife-led antenatal classes that include birth partners and focus on evidence-based information.

We are carrying out a pilot research study to determine our actual PND rate and wider social impact on birth experiences, feeding experiences and the communication between couples.

Having spoken to more than 145 women who have completed our classes and whose babies are at least three months old, our data shows that our postnatal depression rate is 67% lower than the national average, which is currently estimated at 1:10 women and men in the UK.

There are two parts to this research project:

A short telephone interview (5 minutes) about mental health, carried out by two research assistants. For those who we have not been able to speak to, this is included within the online questionnaire.

A follow up email and online questionnaire (approximately 15 minutes) about the impact New Life classes had on your experience of:

• Birth
• Feeding
• Communicating with your partner
• The transition into parenthood

Our goal is to understand the true impact our classes are having on people’s lives aiming to improve antenatal education at a national level in the UK, if our results are positive. Also, to use the data to continue to improve our service offering to future customers.

Data Protection:

We take data protection very seriously and have set up protocols to ensure your identity is protected within the research process. Your data will be stored in a secure filing system with strict security measures to prevent your personal data from being lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. In order to protect your privacy and confidentiality rights.

You can see our privacy policy here: https://newlifeclasses.com/privacy/

Within this project we have four sets of data:

• Your contact information, collected when you registered for your antenatal course
• Your pre-course survey data, collected before your antenatal course started
• The mental health telephone / email survey data
• The wider social impact survey data

Your contact information is stored within our CRM system and is only used by the research tam to call or email you with reference to this research.

Your contact file has been given an ID number which is used in place of your name on your pre-course survey, mental health survey and wider social impact survey data to maintain your anonymity and confidentiality.

This research project may result in more formal research being carried out with the University of Bristol. However, we will never share any identifying information with any third parties without your express permission. We may share anonymised data.

Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary and you can withdraw from the research at any time. Simply let us know you would like to withdraw by emailing [email protected] and we will update your permissions.

We understand that some of the questions in this survey are cover sensitive topics surrounding your prenatal and postnatal experiences. Therefore, if you feel you are affected by any aspect of this survey, please feel free to contact Iona Smith, Managing Director of New Life Classes on 0117 214 0349 or by email [email protected] or one of the following organisations:

Bluebell Bristol & Bath: 0117 922 0746 www.bluebellcare.org

Dads in Mind: 07730 367 483 www.bluebellcare.org

Mothers for Mothers: 0117 9359366 www.mothersformothers.co.uk

Mind: 0300 123 3393 or text 86463 www.mind.org.uk

Pandas Foundation UK: 0843 2898401 www.pandasfoundation.org.uk