Empowering Maternal Wellness: AI tools for childbirth PTSD prevention

Introduction

CB-PTSD:

CB-PTSD is a childbirth related post traumatic stress disorder that can develop surrounding the events of child birth. It is arguably one of the only psychiatric disorders resulting from an event that is socially considered positive.Nearly 18.5% of women develop CB-PTSD symptoms following an unplanned caesarean section (UCS) and more women are likely to develop atleast some CB-PSTD symptoms. Indeed, CB-PTSD symptoms can have negative impact on the entire family, including breastfeeding , child socio-emotional development , future pregnancies, and marital satisfaction. Therefore, preventing CB-PTSD can benefit children and co-parents.

Symptoms of CB- PTSD :

The symptoms of CB-PTSD are re-experiencing of the traumatic event, cognitive and behavioural avoidance, negative alterations in mood and cognitions, and hyperarousal, symptoms of depression, impairment in the development of mother-child bonding. Maternal attachments problems leading to reduced exclusive breastfeeding during an important time for child development are reported. CB-PTSD can impede early child development and results in public health costs.

Types of CB- PTSD :

There are five types of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which are

PTSD Type 1 – Normal Stress Response

PTSD Type 2 – Acute Stress Disorder

PTSD Type 3 – Uncomplicated PTSD

PTSD Type 4 – Complex PTSD

PTSD Type 5 – Comorbid PTSD

PTSD Type 1 – Normal Stress Response : It occurs before PTSD begins. But does not lead to full- blown disorder .This type of PTSD can be recovered within a week.

PTSD Type 2 – Acute Stress Disorder : It occurs in people who are exposed to life threatening events. It is not similar to PTSD. It can be treated through individual and group therapy ,medication and intensive treatments designed by a psychiatrist.

PTSD Type 3 – Uncomplicated PTSD: It can be treated easily and the symptoms include avoidance of trauma reminders, nightmare , flashback to the event,irritability , mood changes and changes in relationships.It can be treated through therapy, medication or a combination of both.

PTSD Type 4 – Complex PTSD: It is caused by multiple traumatic events which leads to depression, intense rage or panic and the symptoms are same as uncomplicated PTSD but treatment is more intense than uncomplicated PTSD.

PTSD Type 5 – Comorbid PTSD : It is a blanket term for co-occuring disorders. It is common as many people suffer from more than one mental health concern coupled with substance abuse issues.Commingling mental health condition and the comorbid PTSD are treated at the same time to get best results.

Role of AI in the diagnosis of PTSD in postpartum women :

Artificial Intelligence (AI) model has the ability to screen for post-traumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) in women who have undergone recent childbirth.AI has the ability to extract novel insights from text based data sets derived from the brief narrative descriptions by postpartum women of their childbirth experience,which is efficient, low cost and patient – friendly strategy.

The narrative data from the personal accounts of women with and without probable CB-PTSD to a numerical format which was then analyzed by a trained machine learning algorithm developed by the team.

This model has superior performance to identify postpartum traumatic stress and large language models, which are typically trained on huge volumes of data allowing them to understand, analyze and interpret natural language.Machine Language model using childbirth narrative input from AI model as its exclusive data source presents an efficient mechanism for collecting data during the vulnerable postpartum period, demonstrating 85 percent sensitivity and 75 percent specificity in identifying CB-PTSD cases.

This model could potentially improve accessibility to CB-PTSD screening and diagnosis by fitting seamlessly into routine obstetric care and providing a foundation for commercial product development and mainstream adoption. Exploring women's mental health followed by traumatic childbirth, underscores the clinical benefits of using a pre-trained large language model to assess potential PTSD in new mothers.

Timely intervention is essential to prevent the advancement of this disorder to enduring stages, which can seriously complicate treatment .Novel perspective could introduce an innovative and cost-effective screening strategy for identifying high-risk women and facilitating timely treatment.

Conclusion :

With the advancement in AI tools in healthcare sector there has been groundbreaking and the potential to positively reshape the continuum of care. AI can provide cost-effective, dependable, and quick approaches for diagnosing PTSD, particularly for stigmatized people who have trouble getting appropriate mental healthcare.