Self-compassion and well-being in parenthood

New self-help interventions have been called for to promote psychological well-being amongst mothers in the first year post-partum, with self-compassion being identified as a promising intervention target. The present study developed and evaluated a low-intensity, online, compassion-based intervention for this population. The Kindness for Mums Online (KFMO) programme was based on Hartley-Jones (2016), and was developed in consultation with six mothers. Mothers of infants under one year (N = 206) participated in a randomised controlled trial, comparing KFMO with a waitlist control. The KFMO group showed significantly greater increases in self-compassion and in psychological well-being compared to controls, with small to medium effect sizes. Improvement in self-compassion statistically mediated the improvement in well-being observed immediately post-intervention. Treatment gains in self-compassion, but not well-being, were maintained at 6-week follow-up.

The findings suggest that self-compassion can be increased in post-natal women via an accessible, low-intensity, web-based self-help programme. Study limitations include high attrition rates and poor generalisability to more diverse samples.