Development and Implementation of a Virtual Environment in VRChat to Promote Postnatal Psychoprophylaxis

Psychoprophylaxis is a preparatory process provided to women while they are pregnant. Following childbirth, postpartum psychoprophylaxis refers to supportive activities, both physical and emotional support. This study discusses a development made for postnatal psychoprophylaxis in a virtual reality setting. The main goal was to create an immersive virtual experience, using VRChat, in the central plaza of Huancavelica, to provide psychoprophylaxis activities to mothers during the first weeks postpartum. A flexible methodology consisting of four phases was used, from research and planning to development of the environment, using tools such as Unity, Blender, Autodesk, VRChat, Creators Companion, and Steam. Internal validations of the environment permitted the creation of a functional virtual world in VRChat. To conclude, this study was successful in completing this work to set the stage for future research to facilitate testing the VR environment with end users.