Been there, experienced that': A qualitative study on the experiences and perceptions of online peer volunteers in supporting Singaporean mothers at risk of depression

Background: Online peer support is a useful source of support for parents during the perinatal period, associated with improved psychological outcomes. Past research has found that peer support providers themselves gain from providing peer support as well, making it mutually beneficial. As current maternity care services are insufficient to meet the support needs of parents, the Supportive Parenting App (SPA) intervention was developed to offer them informational, appraisal and emotional support during the perinatal period. It consists of mobile health application-based educational support and online peer support provided by trained peer volunteers, to prevent the development of postnatal depression. Objective: To explore the experiences of peer volunteers with providing online peer support to parents during the perinatal period, as well as to identify areas of improvement for the SPA intervention. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was adopted. This study took place from October 2020 to August 2021 in two tertiary public healthcare institutions in Singapore. A total of 18 peer volunteers were invited for individual semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Four themes were emerged as follows: (1) 'Being there': Reminiscing about and healing of own postnatal depression experience; (2) Building rapport with parents; (3) Parents in mind: Mutual sharing of knowledge and how to support new parents better; (4) Ensuring good quality peer support. Conclusions: The peer volunteers felt that their experience was fulfilling and healing. Frequent contact, sharing of SPA resources and self-disclosure were found to help engage the new parents and build rapport between peer volunteers and parents. Challenges described by the peer volunteers have identified possible areas in which the SPA intervention can be improved. Implications for care: Communication between peer program facilitators, managers and peer volunteers can be enhanced to ensure that peer volunteers are more sensitive and precise when providing support or information. This can improve rapport building between parents and peer volunteers, which will in turn maximize the benefits that parents can reap through online peer-to-peer support.