INTERSECT Conference
It has been just over a month since our first INTERSECT conference, which was held on the 21st July 2026!
The conference brought together international researchers to present their work on childbirth-related PTSD and other perinatal mental health conditions. The event was well attended with 148 attendees, some of whom described the conference as “incredible”, “well organised” and “interesting”. One attendee stated the conference had led to them feeling “inspired and invigorated by the momentum and ideas presented”, and another stated “It's been truly inspiring to be surrounded by research that can genuinely make a difference in women's lives. Grateful to have been part of it!”.
The conference started at 9am with Professor Susan Ayers, City St George's, University of London, welcoming everyone, followed by a presentation about the international prevalence of CB-PTSD, which has now been published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Read it here: International prevalence of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder: INTERSECT study | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core.
The second presentation was by Dr Georgina Constantinou, City St George's, University of London who presented the second international paper, about symptom presentation of childbirth-related PTSD (CB-PTSD). This is published in the Journal of Affective Disorders and is available to read here: Symptom presentation of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress in 31 countries: the INTERSECT study
Dr Rebecca Webb, City St George's, University of London, then presented a paper which is currently in prep, about country-level inequalities and whether they predict postpartum mental health, and will be submitted for publication in Autumn 2026.
Prof Jonathan Handelzalts, Academic College of Tel Aviv, then presented the final two international papers, which are about risk factors for CB-PTSD. One of which is currently published in Psychological Medicine and is available to read here: Cross-national risk factors for childbirth-related PTSD: Findings from the INTERSECT study | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core, the other has been submitted for publication.
The international presentations were then followed with updates on the INTERSECT subgroups with presentations from:
Dr Paulina Pawlicka, University of Gdańsk, on the Fear of Childbirth subgroup, which has resulted in publications about the psychometric properties of the Fear of Birth Scale and the Tokophobia Severity Scale
Dr Lara Seefeld, Dalhousie University, on the Father and birth-partner experiences subgroup, where data has been collected on fathers/birth partners in Iceland (Dr Valgerður Lísa Sigurðardóttir, Dr. Emma Marie Swift), Italy (Prof Chiara Ionio and Giulia Ciuffo), Poland (Paulina Pawlicka, Maria Kaźmierczak), and Norway (Silje Marie Haga, Susan Garthus-Niegel, Lara Seefeld).
Professor Genesis Chorwe-Sungani, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, on INTERSECT Africa – a network of researchers working in African countries who have conducted the INTERSECT survey, or are potentially interested in doing so. https://www.intersectstudy.org/intersectafrica
Dr Gabija Jarašiūnaitė-Fedosejeva, Vytautas Magnus University, who presented work from the Mother–Baby Bonding subgroup, which developed a short version of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire.
Professor Raquel Costa, Universidade Lusófona, who presented work from the Maternal Mistreatment subgroup about prevalence and risk factors across 6 countries.
Dr Rebecca Webb, City St George’s, University of London, who presented work from the models of maternity care subgroup, exploring how maternity care systems can be categorised.
Our first afternoon session looked at national CB-PTSD prevalence and risk factors. Our first presentation was by Elizabeth Mwangala, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, who discussed prevalence and correlates of CB-PTSD in Malawi.
This was followed by a presentation from Oyeyemi Afolabi, University of Ibadan, who presented work about the prevalence and risk factors for CB-PTSD in Nigeria.
Athina Mavrommati, Cyprus University of Technology, then presented her MSc work on prevalence and experiences of CB-PTSD in Cyprus.
Valentine Rattaz, Lausanne University Hospital, then presented risk factors for different symptom clusters of CB-PTSD in the Swiss INTERSECT study, which is published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, and is available to read here: Risk factors for childbirth-related post-traumatic stress symptoms in mothers and coparents: A prospective longitudinal study - ScienceDirect
PhD student, Charlie Francis-Pape, City St George’s, University of London, then presented her work on Sexual Violence, Birthing Experiences and Postpartum PTSD, which is a secondary analysis of the INTERSECT Data. The INTERSECT data is available via the UKDS: UK Data Service
Our final session of the conference was an opportunity for INTERSECT consortium members to present any of their INTERSECT work.
Marta Marić, Maja Žutić, Catholic University of Croatia, started the session by presenting their work on Birth satisfaction, social support and postpartum PTSD.
Professor Sandra Nakić Radoš, Catholic University of Croatia, presented work about correlates of birth satisfaction among postpartum women:
Sergio Martínez Vázquez, University of Jaén, then presented data about risk networks of maternal depression across global income divides:
Our last presentation of the day was by Nikolina Vukšić, Catholic University of Croatia, who presented a protocol about identifying subtypes of postpartum depression using the INTERSECT data.
The day ended with a fantastic summary by Prof Jonathan Handelzalts, University College of Tel-Aviv, leaving us all feeling inspired!
We would like to thank everyone who presented and attended this conference, it was a fantastic event and we look forward to future INTERSECT conferences!
Read City St George's news report about the conference here: INTERSECT conference showcases global findings on childbirth-related trauma • City St George's, University of London
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