Dr. Justine Dol
Postdoctoral Fellow
IWK Health
CANADA
Dr. Justine Dol is a postdoctoral fellow at IWK Health (Nova Scotia, Canada). Her research program, EMPOWER, seeks to Enhance Medical and Psychosocial Outcomes in Women+ and parents through E-Health Resources.
Her work focuses on: (1) advancing women’s and gender diverse health through empowering women+ across the lifespan with evidence-based information and improving their care and health outcomes; (2) understanding and reducing the medical and psychosocial challenges faced by parents and families from preconception to childhood, inclusive of all family configurations; and (3) co-designing, evaluating, and implementing digital health solutions to improve medical and psychosocial outcomes for women+ and parents across the lifespan, focusing on equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Dr. Dol has published over 80 peer reviewed journal articles and has received over $1M in funding. She developed the Essential Coaching Postpartum text message program that supports birthing and non-birthing parents during the first weeks postpartum in Canada and Tanzania. Dr. Dol is passionate about improving women+ and parent health using digital technologies.
The transition to parenthood is an exciting yet demanding period requiring physical, emotional, and social adjustments. However, the postpartum education and support that new parents receive is often inadequate, despite evidence that critical early-life environmental factors, such as parental mental health, impact lifelong health outcomes for parents and children. Education and support via text-messaging have the potential to fill this health care gap.
This talk will describe Essential Coaching Postpartum, an innovative, low-cost text message program designed to improve new parents’ access to information and support during the immediate 6-week postpartum period. Developed in Nova Scotia through iterative user-centered testing with parents and healthcare providers, the program delivers 59 messages starting the second day after birth—twice daily for 3 weeks and then once daily until 6 weeks. A randomized controlled trial found that the program improves parenting self-efficacy and reduces postpartum anxiety in birthing parents. Originally developed for birthing parents, the development, evaluation, and expansion of Essential Coaching Postpartum, including its adaptation for non-birthing parents, will be described. Ongoing work and plans for sustainability will be described.
Essential Coaching Postpartum is the first Canadian comprehensive text message program providing remote support specifically for the immediate postpartum period, enhancing universally available public healthcare. Essential Coaching Postpartum supports both the parental perinatal transition as well as indirectly improving neonatal outcomes through supporting family health and well-being during this critical life stage. This work also emphasizes the importance of sustainability and scalability in interventions through using low-cost, scalable, innovative solutions for improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes globally. Moreover, the program's expansion to diverse populations, including non-birthing parents, adds valuable insights into the adaptability of digital health tools, which is relevant to a broad audience.