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Women’s procreative capacities and the appreciation of birth experiences have always been recognised in civil society and the early days of psychology. Given that our culture is one that emphasises a woman’s capacity to bear children as one of the greatest social achievements, the social responsibility to procreate and ensure collective survival becomes a potent mandate, especially so for Black African women. To fulfil this social responsibility, traditional African culture dictates a very specific process of pregnancy which involves a series of watershed moments, each of which requires that social support, of whatever form, should be available. This study explored the role that social support from significant others and health professionals play in mediating psychological issues during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatally among Black African women in Madadeni Township in KwaZulu-Natal. The study was rooted in the interpretive, qualitative paradigm and a phenomenological research design was used. Purposive sampling was used to select participants who were aged from 18 to 25 years with a baby older than two weeks but less than six months. Semi structured interviews were conducted in the mother tongue of the participants until the point of saturation where no new information arose from the six participants interviewed. Thematic content analysis was used to extract recurrent themes across participants. The results indicate that social support, especially from parents and partners, plays a defining role in helping women to cope with the stress experienced during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatally. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology: Research Consultation)

Bakgrunden till denna studien är baserad på tidigare forskning som har hittat specifika riskfaktorer för att utveckla en förlossningsdepression. En förlossningsdepression klassas som den vanligaste komplikationen av en graviditet och förlossning och påverkar välbefinnandet hos både den drabbade och familjen. Syftet var att belysa nyblivna mammors upplevelser av välbefinnande i relation till föräldraskapet samt att ta reda på hur dessa mammor tycker att ett förebyggande arbete mot nedstämdhet och förlossningsdepression kan se ut. Metoden i studien är en kvalitativ metod i form av två enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer och tre fokusgruppsintervjuer. Analysmetoden som använts i studien är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade tre huvudkategorier som var ”yttre riskfaktorer som påverkar mammans välbefinnande”, ”individuella riskfaktorer som påverkar mammans välbefinnande” och ”förebyggande arbete ur mammans perspektiv”. Dessa visade att förväntningar, bristande socialt stöd och bristande information var tre huvudresultat som bidrog till nedstämdhet hos de nyblivna mammorna i studien. Konklusionen visar att huvudresultaten spelar stor roll för nyblivna mammors välbefinnande och sjukvården har ett stort ansvar i arbetet kring de nyblivna mammornas välbefinnande. Ämnet behöver mer forskning för det fortsatta preventiva arbetet mot nedstämdhet och förlossningsdepressioner bland nyblivna mammor. / The background to this study is based on former research that has found specific risk factors to develop a postpartum depression. A postpartum depression is classified as the most common complication of a pregnancy and birth and affect the well-being of both the mother and her family. The purpose was to investigate the experience of well-being among mothers that recently give birth in relation to parenting and to find out how the mothers think a preventive work against postpartum depression should be. The used method is a qualitative method with two individual semi-structured interviews and three focus group interviews. The analytical method used in the study is a qualitative content analysis. The result three main categories named “external risk factors that affect the mothers’ well-being”, “individual risk factors that affect the mothers’ well-being” and “preventive work from the mothers’ perspective”. These main categories showed that expectations, lack of support and lack of information were the main results that could affect the mothers’ well-being. The conclusion shows that the main results play a major role for the well-being of mothers who recently gave birth and that the healthcare have a major responsibility in the preventive work of the well-being among them. To continue the preventive work against postpartum depression the subject needs further research.

Women’s procreative capacities and the appreciation of birth experiences have always been recognised in civil society and the early days of psychology. Given that our culture is one that emphasises a woman’s capacity to bear children as one of the greatest social achievements, the social responsibility to procreate and ensure collective survival becomes a potent mandate, especially so for Black African women. To fulfil this social responsibility, traditional African culture dictates a very specific process of pregnancy which involves a series of watershed moments, each of which requires that social support, of whatever form, should be available. This study explored the role that social support from significant others and health professionals play in mediating psychological issues during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatally among Black African women in Madadeni Township in KwaZulu-Natal. The study was rooted in the interpretive, qualitative paradigm and a phenomenological research design was used. Purposive sampling was used to select participants who were aged from 18 to 25 years with a baby older than two weeks but less than six months. Semi structured interviews were conducted in the mother tongue of the participants until the point of saturation where no new information arose from the six participants interviewed. Thematic content analysis was used to extract recurrent themes across participants. The results indicate that social support, especially from parents and partners, plays a defining role in helping women to cope with the stress experienced during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatally. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology: Research Consultation)

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine patterns of antenatal stressful life events (SLEs) experienced by women in the United States (U.S.) and their association with postpartum depression (PPD). It further explored the role of women's state-level socio-economic status (SES) on PPD; the racial/ethnic dispartites in SLE-PPD relationship; and the role of provider communication on perinatal depression. Data from 2009–11 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) and SES indicators published by the Institute of Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) were used. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed to identify unobserved class membership based on antenatal SLEs. Multilevel generalized linear mixed models examined whether state-level SES moderated the antenatal SLE-PPD relationship. Of 116,595 respondents to the PRAMS 2009-11, the sample size for our analyses ranged from 78% to 99%. The majority (64%) of participants were in low-stress class. The illness/death related-stress class (13%) had a high prevalence of severe illness (77%) and death (63%) of a family member or someone very close to them, while those in the multiple-stress (22%) class endorsed most other SLEs. Eleven percent had PPD; women who experienced all types of stressors, had the highest odds (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 5.43; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.36, 5.51) of PPD. The odds of PPD decreased with increasing state-level social/economic autonomy index (aOR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.88), with significant cross-level interaction between stressors and state-level SES. Among non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites, husband/partner not wanting the pregnancy (aOR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.90) and drug/drinking problems of someone close (aOR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.21, 1.55) were respectively associated with PPD. Provider communication was protective. That 1 out of every 5 and 1 out of every 8 women were in the high- and emotional-stress classes suggests that SLEs are common among pregnant women. Our results suggest that screening for antenatal SLEs might help identify women at risk for PPD. The finding that the odds of PPD decrease with increasing social/economic autonomy, could have policy implications and motivate efforts to improve these indices. This study also indicates the benefits of antenatal health care provider communication on perinatal depression.