Awareness of postpartum depression among midwives and pregnant women in Arkhangelsk, Arctic Russia

Figures & data

Table 1. Midwives’ characteristics.

Midwife	Age, years	Working experience, years	Number of children	Marital status
Midwife 1	Mean = 45 Range = 35–56	20	2	married
Midwife 2		5	3	married
Midwife 3		38	2	married
Midwife 4		15	1	single
Midwife 5		7	2	married
Midwife 6		37	2	married
Midwife 7		36	1	married

Table 2. Pregnant women’s characteristics.

Pregnant woman	Age, years	Age of gestation, weeks	Pregnancy N/delivery N	Marital status	Job position
Pregnant woman 1	28	33	1/0	married	IT
Pregnant woman 2	41	34	2/0	single	Designer
Pregnant woman 3	27	29	1/0	married	Housewife
Pregnant woman 4	25	30	1/0	married	Teacher
Pregnant woman 5	29	33	2/1	married	Housewife
Pregnant woman 6	35	32	2/1	married	Housewife
Pregnant woman 7	33	30	1/0	single	Manager
Pregnant woman 8	26	33	1/0	married	Teacher
Pregnant woman 9	25	31	1/0	married	IT
Pregnant woman 10	28	30	1/0	married	N/A
Pregnant woman 11	25	29	1/0	married	Manager
Pregnant woman 12	33	35	3/2	married	Housewife

Table 3. An example of the analytical process of midwives’ and pregnant women’s responses.

An example of the analytical process of midwives’ responses
Preliminary themes were extracted on a review of the entire data material.	Extraction of meaning units and summarized into codes.		From coding process to overall categories	Categories were divided into sub- categories
	Quotations	Code
Unpreparedness for motherhood	“I think that women don’t always know what will happen after childbirth, so it’s important to talk to them about the difficulties they may face”	Reality after childbirth	Perceived psycho-physiological condition after childbirth	Reality does not match their expectations
Idealistic image of motherhood	«Women expect everything to be like in beautiful pictures on the Internet, but in reality it may not be the same”			Before childbirth they have unrealistic expectations
An example of the analytical process of pregnant women’s responses
Psychological condition after childbirth	“Feelings of fear before childbirth can lead to tense behaviour during labour and possibly lead to unpleasant consequences for the baby”	Birth experience	Lack of professional, family and financial needs	Lack of support

Table 4. Overview of categories and subcategories emerging from in-depth semi-structured interviews with midwives and pregnant women.

Categories	Subcategories
Seen as a mix of psychological and physiological symptoms	Feelings and symptoms of apathy, fear, guilt Bodily and hormonal changes Conflicts between expectations and reality Impaired mother and child relationships
Need for professional and family support	Limited time for psychological counselling Restricted understanding among family members Financial and housing worries
A medical diagnosis or just temporary fatigue?	High prevalence of symptoms Uncertainty about labelling Denial of the problem