Leader: Dr Susanne Uusitalo 

Objectives: Improve the protection of human subjects in all aspects of research in PPD

Tasks: i) Identify emerging ethical and legal issues in PPD, related to patient recruitment, sampling, informed consent, sharing of data, biological samples and personal data protection; ii) Discuss primary ethical concerns in human research and specificities in pregnancy, postpartum and newborn-infants; iii) Develop and stimulate adherence to ethical guidelines to address the challenges; iv) Foster the inclusion of women’s mental health advocates (e.g. local associations), and practitioners (e.g. midwives) in research ethics committees.

Milestones: WG Meetings; Local Workshops (1 per ITC aiming at reaching a minimum of 8 ITC members); Satellite talks within the programmed International Conferences with stakeholders.
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Deliverables: Report on the emerging ethical challenges in PPD research namely the representativeness of the different stakeholders in current regional ethic committees; Publication addressing the emerging ethical issues, and a patient-information leaflet based of the former.