Salome Chibwana (MscIH, MA (Econs), BSocSc)

Thesis title: The interplay between perinatal bonding, maternal mental health, social support, and adversity in Malawi: a mixed methods analysis

Biography

Background

Salome is a public health Monitoring and Evaluation professional with a passion to serve low income populations and improve their health outcomes. She is currently expanding her research capabilities as a PhD student exploring the relationships between perinatal bonding, maternal mental health, social support and adversities in Malawi. Her PhD focuses on validation of the Prenatal Attachment Inventory and the teh Maternal Attachment Inventory as measures of bonding in the perinatal period in Malawi. She is also exploring how pregnant Malawian women conceptualise the mother-foetus bond in light of their perceptions; perceptions of their families and friends; and their supernatural belief systems.

Prior to the PhD, Salome worked in government and non governmental settings where she has supported development of national strategic plans; and development and implementation of interventions on: - empowerment of marginalised groups; behaviour change communication; advocacy for people living with HIV; and electronic HIV data management. Salome also has experience supporting health emergencies having worked on the World Bank funded Malawi COVID-19 response. She carries with her a wealth of experience in development and implementation of M&E systems; data management and analysis; and information synthesis for decision making.

CV

PDF icon salome_chibwana_resume.pdf

Qualifications

Master of Science in International Health

Master of Arts in Economics

Bachelor of Social Science (credit)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member Women in Global Health - Malawi Chapter (October 2021-to date)

Member International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health (Apr 2022-to date)

Research summary

Mother and Child Health

Quantitative analysis

Social Inequality

Women empowerment

Current research interests

Mother and Foetus Bonding Psychometric analyses

Past research interests

Income Inequality HIV and AIDS

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

I am studying under the Generation Malawi project which is a joint UK Medical Research Council (MRC GCRF) and Wellcome funded longitudinal study of mental and physical health in families in Malawi. The Project aims to establish a multi-generational family/birth cohort in the rural (Chilumba) and urban (Lilongwe Area 25) MEIRU research sites through which to study longitudinal course and pregnancy, early-life and intergenerational effects for chronic mental and physical health conditions.

 I am supporting the validation of mother- foetus and mother - infant bond measures; the prenatal attachment inventory and the maternal attachment inventory respectively.  I am also qualitatively exploring the concept of the mother - foetus bond using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Participant

2022 Biennial Conference of the International Marce Society

 

Papers delivered

Translation and Adaptation of Perinatal Bonding Measures in Chichewa and Tumbuka using data from Area 25, Lilongwe and Chilumba, Karonga: 8th Malawi Mental Health Research and Practice Development Conference

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