The NSPCC UK Minding the Baby® (MTB) home-visiting programme, supporting young mothers (aged 14–25) in the first 2 years of their baby's life: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Young mothers living in low income urban settings often are exposed to significant and chronic environmental difficulties including poverty, social isolation and poor education and typically also have to cope with personal histories of abuse and depression. Minding the Baby® (MTB) is an interdisciplinary home visiting programme developed to support first time young mothers, which integrates primary care and mental health approaches into a single intensive intervention from the last trimester of pregnancy to the child’s second birthday. The primary aim of the intervention is to promote caregiver sensitivity, and, secondarily, to promote both child and maternal socio-emotional outcomes Methods/Design: This is a multi-site randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a target recruitment of 200 first time adolescent mothers (