A Qualitative Evaluation of Telephone-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Postpartum Mothers

'Some Days Are Not a Good Day to Be a Mum': Exploring Lived Experiences of Guilt and Shame in the Early Postpartum Period

The first 16 weeks postpartum are particularly challenging for a new mother and are associated with an elevated risk of experiencing psychological distress. Guilt and shame have been identified as significant predictors of other forms of psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression. However, guilt and shame are poorly distinguished in pre-existing literature. The current study used inductive thematic analysis to explore lived experiences of guilt and shame in the early postpartum period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 women who had given birth in the past 16 weeks and who were residing in the UK at the time of the investigation. All those interviewed had internalised unrealistic mothering ideals. Physical constraints on one's parenting abilities, due to birth recovery, exacerbated postpartum guilt and shame. Other sources of guilt and shame included body dissatisfaction and making comparisons against other mothers and media depictions of motherhood. Participants were hesitant to confide in others about parenting challenges due to fears of judgement, which perpetuated the shame-concealment cycle. Future research should prioritise the development of interventions designed to target a harsh parenting inner critic, and the re-framing of cognitive biases, to nurture more realistic and self-compassionate beliefs about motherhood. For practice, current findings mirror previous calls for intimate partners to be actively included in routine appointments, to provide healthcare practitioners with specialist training in postpartum mental health, and to educate mothers on responsible social media use.

mHealth and Perinatal Depression in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Women in low- and middle-income countries have high rates of perinatal depression. As smartphones become increasingly accessible around the world, there is an opportunity to explore innovative mHealth tools for the prevention, screening, and management of perinatal depression. We completed a scoping review of the literature pertaining to the use of mobile phone technologies for perinatal depression in low-and middle-income countries. PubMed CINHAL, and Google Scholar databases were searched, generating 423 results. 12 articles met our inclusion criteria. Two of the 12 articles reviewed mobile phone applications. The remaining 9 articles were study protocols or descriptive/intervention studies. Our results reveal that minimal literature is currently available on the use of mobile health for perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries. We found four articles that present the results of an intervention that were delivered through mobile phones for the treatment of perinatal depressive symptoms and an additional qualitative study describing the perceptions of mothers receiving cognitive behavioral therapy via telephones. These studies demonstrated that depressive symptoms improved after the interventions. There is potential to improve the quality of mHealth interventions, specifically mobile phone applications for perinatal depressive symptoms and depression, through meaningful collaborative work between healthcare professionals and application developers.

Postpartum Depression: When the Stakes Are the Highest

Pregnancy, a sensitive time when two bodies are changing and developing simultaneously, demands careful consideration in assessing and treating mental health conditions. Add to that the restrictions on researching such a vulnerable population, psychiatric nurses face a challenge in providing evidence-based care. The current article focuses on the epidemiology of postpartum depression and long-term consequences, neurobiology of postpartum depression that guides medication selection, and treatment options for supporting postpartum women and their families. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 57(11), 9-14.].

Perception of family sense of coherence during parental transition: A qualitative study

This study described the perspectives and interplay of factors affecting the family sense of coherence of Chinese couples during the perinatal period. We adopted a grounded theory approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 Chinese couples during pregnancy and at 2-3 months postpartum. Four major themes emerged involving meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability of new parenthood and factors affecting the family sense of coherence. The strong sense of family unity and harmony embedded in the Confucian philosophy and the collective coping, in particular the strong social support network, seemed to contribute to couple's experience of new parenthood as meaningful, comprehensible, and manageable.