Social support after birth
It is normal for women to find the transition to parenthood challenging and stressful, whether they are welcoming a first child or adding a new sibling to the family. The availability of social support from immediate family members and friends is an important factor in helping women cope, and reduced access to, or dissatisfaction with, social support is strongly associated with adverse outcomes of pregnancy including postnatal depression (54).
Barriers to mobilization of support include concerns that asking for help reflects negatively on a woman's capacity as a mother, or that women are in socially isolated situations with minimal support systems available. Women at particular risk are adolescent women and migrant women. Adolescent mothers are at particular risk of intimate partner violence, substance abuse, and postpartum depression (55). These risks are likely due to lack of social supports, high- stress living environments, pre- existing mental health problems, and lack of parenting knowledge. Most of these issues can be addressed by identification of young women at risk during pregnancy and multidisciplinary care and planning for birth and beyond.With increasing rates of global migration, most large maternity services will be providing care for a diverse group of migrant women. For comprehensive care to be effective, it is important that staff are familiar with, and respectful of, differences in language, culture, socioeconomic status, and traditions related to birth (56).
Women from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds will be familiar with, or may experience pressure from family and friends to conform to, different traditions of care, diet, mobilization, and other postnatal practices. While these should be respectfully addressed, it is important that safe and evidence-based care is available and the reasons for such managements are presented to women in an easily understood and useful way.
More on the topic Social support after birth:
- Multiple Pregnancy Resources for Professionals and the Public
- References
- Agrawal M.. Textbook of Pediatrics. 3rd ed. — CBS Publishers,2025. — 973 p., 2025
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- The INTERGROWTH-21st Project
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