Strengths and limitations
RECRUITMENT
The strength of our study is the generation of new knowledge on Norwegian first-time mothers’ QoL and the program offered by the CHS related to QoL. In a Norwegian context, this population and the CHS are rarely subjects to research. Additionally, our study provides knowledge on the association between specific constructs of social support and QoL.This study was not powered to reveal possible differences between the intervention and control group, thus we consider our findings to be exploratory. Our study has a recruitment rate slightly above 50% in both the intervention and control groups and a response rate of around 70–75% from T1 to T3. We acknowledge that the recruitment rate was low, however, it is not uncommon in studies of new parent populations. This limits the generalizability of our study. However, our results are valid for a sub-population of Norwegian women between 29–35 years, who are partnered or married, and have higher family income and educational levels.Limitations and challenges of our study regarding the timeframe, fidelity and implementation, time points, response shift, the use of a generic QoL measure, complexity of the intervention, and biased sample, are already discussed above.The measure of PICSS has not previously been validated in a Norwegian sample of postpartum women. For the New Families research project, the measure was translated and re-translated by professional translators, and we have provided Cronbach’s alpha for each dimension. Future studies should aim to provide further psychometric testing of the instrument in a Norwegian sample, including assurance of cultural adaptation.