When a New Mother Becomes Mentally Unhealthy, It Is Everyone’s Problem: Shanghai Women’s Perceptions of Perinatal Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Sixteen women in Shanghai participated in semistructured interviews, and thematic analysis was used to interpret their responses. An overarching theme, three main themes, and 13 subthemes were identified. The overarching theme (the old ways and the new—transition into motherhood) in new China, had these main themes: (1) urban Chinese women’s transition into motherhood; (2) family’s support and struggle with tradition; and (3) modern society in the shade of the past. The transition from tradition and modernity can be a source of conflict between the generations and can negatively impact new mothers’ mental health. Loneliness, feeling misunderstood, illiteracy, parental generation’s beliefs, and health-care providers’ attitudes are all barriers to access to care.

Keywords:

• Perinatal mental health
• urban China
• depression
• anxiety
• child policy
• health-care practices

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the women for their participation in the present study and all the research staff and clinicians for their hard work, which made this study possible. Thank you to the Shanghai Women’s and Children’s Health Center and Chinese Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) for their support. Thank you to Mandy Hsu, Nicole Pang, and Caroline Reynolds for the language revisions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).