The Survivor Moms’ Companion: Open Pilot of a Posttraumatic Stress Specific Psychoeducation Program for Pregnant Survivors of Childhood Maltreatment and Sexual Trauma

Abstract

The Survivor Moms’ Companion (SMC) is a fully manualized, 10-module self-study psychoeducation program developed to address the pregnancy-specific needs of traumatic stress-affected abuse survivors. It aims to improve affect regulation, reduce interpersonal reactivity, and support posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom management despite the presence of triggers. An open pilot enrolled “survivor moms” prior to 28 weeks gestation and they completed baseline diagnostic telephone interviews, fidelity measures, pretest and posttest, and self-report measures assessing the efficacy of the proposed mechanisms of intervention effect. Of 57 eligible women invited to participate, 32 took up the intervention, 9 completed at least the core 4 modules, and 18 completed all 10 modules. Participant scores showed improvements in anger expression, interpersonal reactivity, and PTSD symptom management, suggesting that participation in the SMC is beneficial. Results will inform the protocol for a cluster randomized trial of the SMC.