“I just feel like I am broken. I am the worst pregnant woman ever”: A qualitative exploration of the “at odds” experience of women's antenatal distress

ABSTRACT

Advances in perinatal mental health research have provided valuable insights around risk factors for the overall development of maternal distress. However, there is still a limited understanding of the experience of women struggling emotionally during pregnancy. We explored how women view, experience, and interpret psychological distress antenatally. Eighteen Australian women participated in in-depth interviews that were analyzed thematically within a critical realist theoretical framework. We present and situate the current findings within the dominant discourse of the good mother, which arguably promotes guilt and stigma and results in women self-labeling as bad mothers.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the women who participated in this research and who shared their stories, and the constructive feedback provided by the reviewers of the manuscript.