faq

The RELAX study will assess how well our pregnancy tailored online training, called RELAX, reduces worry and anxiety in pregnancy and over the months after giving birth. During the training, people are asked to listen to short stories (scenarios) about everyday situations and are trained to think about them in a positive way.

2. What will taking part involve?

Everyone taking part will be asked to complete 4 assessments, which are online questionnaires. One at the beginning of the study and then three others at four, eight and 36 weeks later. Half the women in the study will solely receive their usual maternity care and half will have their usual maternity care, as well as completing the RELAX sessions.

Women offered the RELAX training will be asked to complete 12 online training sessions over 4 weeks at a time and place of their choice. We will then compare both groups afterwards. Our study participants will be given online vouchers as a thank you for completing each assessment.

3. Who decides if a given woman is offered RELAX or not?

Which women are offered the opportunity to use the RELAX training is worked out at random, by a computer. It is not decided by the research team or the woman who has agreed to take part.

4. How will I benefit from taking part?

We hope that taking part will be helpful to manage your worry and anxiety. Your contribution is also crucial to further research on this topic of reducing anxiety in pregnancy. In total, we are hoping to recruit 268 pregnant women.

Furthermore, to thank you for your time and contribution to the study, you will receive £25 in online shopping vouchers for each assessment you complete (which amounts to a maximum of £100 in total).

5. Do I need to be suffering from high levels of anxiety or have a current diagnosis of anxiety to take part?

No. We will check your suitability to take part in this study through the eligibility questionnaires. You will only be asked to take part in the study if you meet the suitability criteria.

Please note that the questionnaires we ask you complete are not diagnostic tools. If you have any concerns about your mental health, we recommend you discuss these with your GP (General Practitioner) or midwife/antenatal care team as they will be able to provide you with the most appropriate support. NHS talking therapies and if you live in England you can self-refer as well, whilst in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland you need to be referred by your GP.

6. Should I check with my GP, midwife, or mental health professional before I start?

Please feel free to discuss this research with them if you like. During the screening questionnaire, we will ask you to provide us with the details of your GP, midwife, and maternity services. With your consent, we will inform your GP and midwife/maternity services of your involvement in the study via a standard letter for their information.

If you have any concerns about this, please contact the research team at relaxstudy@kcl.ac.uk to discuss further.

7. How will I know if I am suitable for this study?

By filling out our initial screening questionnaire, we will be able to let you know if you are likely to be suitable to take part in the study. If you are likely to be suitable, we will invite you to a call with a member of the research team to discuss the study in more detail and see whether the study is appropriate for you. If you are not eligible for the study after this call, we will offer you a £5 voucher to thank you for your time.

Additionally, all individuals who complete the screening questionnaire will be entered into a prize draw offering them a chance to win a £50 voucher. This prize draw will occur every 3 months and you can only be entered into it once.

Please see the Participant Information Sheet tab if you would like to know more details about the study.

8. How often should I do the RELAX sessions and how long will they take?

If you are asked to complete the RELAX sessions, we would like you to complete your first session within 24 hours of completing your first assessment. This first session has extra practices to learn how to do the training, so it takes 30 minutes. The rest of the sessions take 15-20 minutes each. To keep on track and benefit from the training, we suggest you complete three sessions per week across the four weeks. After four weeks, you will not be able to complete any more sessions.

9. Will all the training be explained?

Yes, we start the first session by teaching you how to complete the sessions and you will have practices. For example, you will practice generating positive images (mental pictures).

Everything will be explained clearly through prompts, videos, and written instructions. By the time you start the main task, you should be able to complete the training in the way that it is most intended to be of benefit for you.

10. What device can I use for the study and do I need to use headphones during RELAX sessions?

The assessments can be completed on a phone, computer, laptop, or tablet.

The RELAX training is not available on mobile phones, so you will need to use a computer, laptop, or tablet to complete the sessions.

If possible, please try to use headphones when you are completing the RELAX training sessions. This will help you to get fully immersed in the training (particularly imagining scenarios) and to get the most out of your sessions.

11. What do I do if I need technical support?

The RELAX platform is certified for use on Google Chrome, so we recommend that you use Google Chrome to experience all of the platform features. Please ensure that you view the platform using the full browser screen (not minimised) or zoomed in, but at 100% visibility.

If you are unfortunately experiencing ‘buffering’ on the platform, where the page you are on, or the next page does not load, please bear with it as this should only happen for less than 10 seconds and is often due to poor internet connectivity. If you do experience longer periods of buffering, you may need to ‘Quick exit’ the platform, and log back in again.

The link to set your RELAX password also expires for security reasons after 3 days, so please ensure that you set your password promptly. If this time has elapsed, you can go to the login section and click ‘forgotten password’ to set a new one.

For technical support queries during the study, including if you need help with any of the above, please send us a message using the ‘Contact Us’ button at the top of the page.

12. Can I do sessions on weekends and outside normal working hours?

Absolutely! You can complete them whenever is most convenient for you. Please note that if you need to get in touch with us, we will only be able to reply within working hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm).

13. How can I explain the RELAX study to my partner, family, or friends?

If you want to tell your family, friends, or partner about the study, you could tell them that it is common to feel anxious or worried during pregnancy and after giving birth. These worries can be about lots of different things, such as how the pregnancy will go and what life will be like once the baby arrives. You can tell them that the RELAX study aims to find out if a short online training helps to keep anxiety as low as possible during pregnancy and after birth.

14. What does it mean about me if I worry or feel anxious in pregnancy?

Although it is common to worry and feel anxious during pregnancy and after birth, it can be very difficult to experience high levels of worry and anxiety. However, this does not reflect on your ability to deal with being pregnant or parent your children well. The RELAX sessions may help you to reduce your levels of worry and anxiety.

15. What should I do if I am falling behind with my RELAX sessions and/ or assessments?

We understand that things can happen and that you may not be able to complete an assessment as soon as you are notified or stay on track with your sessions. Please do try to come back to the sessions or assessments as soon as you can. You are welcome to message us through the ‘Contact Us’ button at the top of the page to see if we can help.

If you are feeling so distressed that you can not participate, do let us know via the ‘Contact Us’ button. If you want to stop completing the RELAX sessions and/or your assessments, you do not need to provide a reason. Doing this will not impact you or your maternity care in any way.

16. Who should I talk to if I am feeling distressed?

If you are concerned about your current psychological wellbeing, we recommend that you contact your General Practitioner (GP) or midwife/antenatal care team to get the most appropriate support. If you are in urgent need of help, please call 999 or go to your nearest A&E department.

You can read about NHS delivered therapy services here: NHS talking therapies. If you do a self-referral, make sure to mention that you are pregnant.

More information for urgent mental health support is available here: Mental Health Helpline for Urgent Help – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Some other useful support resources are listed below:

PANDAS offer a free helpline that you can call between 11am-10pm every day on 0808 1961 776. For more information, you can visit their website here: https://pandasfoundation.org.uk/how-we-can-support-you/free-helpline/

Samaritans also offer a free helpline that you can call at any time on 116 123. For more information, please visit: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/if-youre-having-difficult-time/

You can also visit the Mind website for information and support on mental health: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance also provide a list of perinatal mental health support resources on their website. For more information, please visit: https://maternalmentalhealthalliance.org/resources/mums-and-families/

You can also get in touch with us using the ‘Contact Us’ button above or alternatively email relaxstudy@kcl.ac.uk. Please note that the research team only work on weekdays (Mondays-Fridays) between 9am-5pm.

17. Where can I find out more information?

Please review our Participant Information Sheet for more information or write to us using the ‘Contact Us’ button above if there is anything you would like to ask us about the study.

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