Oxford Parent Infant Project (OXPIP)
2022 , 2023 & 2024 Grant Recipients
Project funded by the Powerhouse Grant - Grant medium, completing March 2025
In this project, Oxford Parent-Infant Project (OXPIP) has delivered specialist parent-infant psychotherapy to parents and their babies (conception to 2) in Didcot and surrounding villages. Around 15% of all parents struggle to relate to their new baby, usually because they have experienced a trauma which is compromising their own mental health. Without effective, early psychotherapy like that provided by OXPIP, early relationship problems can cause substantial problems for the parent and even more so for the child later on, including mental health, behavioural and social difficulties.
We are therefore enormously grateful to Didcot Powerhouse for funding this work, which is personally meaningful for babies and parents, clinically impactful and cost-effective.
“When I first met with my OXPIP therapist whilst I was still pregnant I was in a really dark place… plagued by my intrusive thoughts and just feeling really low. My therapist and I worked through these thoughts and how to deal with them. By the end of our sessions I was feeling really positive and developed a strong bond with my baby!”
Impact achieved so far:
When put together with what international research shows about the importance of secure attachment, our data below shows that OXPIP is improving lives for the better, not just for the current generation of parents, but for the next generation of parents and their babies that follow.
Parents who felt numb, disconnected, fearful, hostile or even rejecting of their babies, have been helped to develop feelings of acceptance, warmth, nurturance, connection and love. Their confidence and self-esteem have been re-built so that they now feel better able to parent this baby. And for the babies, the outlook is transformed, with a future of secure attachment and positive emotional connection.
Improvements in parent-infant relationship quality and associated aspects of parenting such as sensitivity (measured by PIRGAS)
Result: 85% of families showed improvement as measured by the PIRGAS Improvements in parental mental health (measured by PHQ-9 and GAD-7)
Result: 83% of parents showed improved mental health as measured by the PHQ-9 and/or GAD-7, OXPIP’s Parent satisfaction evaluation (qualitative and quantitative feedback which often picks up spontaneous reports of reduction in social isolation, parental self-esteem and confidence.)
Result: We have received copious written feedback from parents and this is all available for review on request.
One Parent’s Quote
“Just to say again on behalf of the parents and babies, how much we’ve appreciated your funding. There’s a huge body of research which shows that even if you can only change a child’s trajectory a little during the first two years of life, those early benefits accumulate and widen such that the impact in 20 years’ time will be substantial.”