Together, results suggest that the group provides an efficient and therapeutically beneficial service. However, since these findings are limited by the lack of control or follow-up data, they warrant further investigation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and factors influencing antenatal depression, anxiety and stress symptomatology. The study used a cross-sectional survey design in a sample of 302 antenatal women across the trimesters of pregnancy. The questionnaire collected demographic and pregnancy data, included two measures of emotional distress; the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), a measure of social support; the Significant Others Scale (SOS), and an adapted measure of distress from life events; the List of Threatening Experiences (LTE). Seventeen per cent were identified as suffering from depression symptomatology, 25% as having symptoms of anxiety and 25% as having symptoms of stress. Analysis revealed that a lack of support from a partner, mother, and an ‘other’ (typically a sibling or friend) were significant predictors of symptomatology. There were different predictive factors for antenatal women with children and primiparous women. Information was also obtained about antenatal women's preferences for health-care support with emotional distress. The need to widen the focus from postnatal depression to perinatal mental health was demonstrated. Interventions with an interpersonal focus may prove particularly effective as lack of social support appears to be a significant predictor of antenatal emotional distress.

Following previous work which indicated positive outcomes (Morton et al., 2012), we report findings from a controlled trial evaluating an eight-week cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) self-esteem group for women based on ‘Overcoming Low Self-Esteem Self-Help’ course workbooks (Fennell, 2006).

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