Return to Work, Economic Hardship, and Women's Postpartum Health

Abstract

This study followed a sample of 217 new mothers in a North Carolina county as they returned to work full-time, measuring their mental and physical health-related quality of life through 16 months postpartum. In general, working mothers of infants had mental health scores that were comparable to the general population of U.S. women, and physical health that was slightly better than women in general. Using ANCOVA and controlling for important demographic characteristics, health-related quality of life was compared between mothers experiencing low and high levels of economic hardship. Across the study period, women with high economic hardship, who constituted 30.7% of the sample, had levels of mental and physical health below those of women with low economic hardship. Mothers with high economic hardship also had less stable health trajectories than mothers with low economic hardship. The findings highlight the importance of reconsidering the traditionally accepted postpartum recovery period of six weeks and extending benefits, such as paid maternity and sick leave, as well as stable yet flexible work schedules.

KEYWORDS:

• economic hardship
• mental health
• physical health
• postpartum
• working mothers

Notes

This research was supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (R21 HD48601). A previous version of this analysis was presented in a poster presentation at the 71st Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, November 2009.

***Difference between economic hardship groups is significant at the p < .001 level.