Grant: Project Grant

Almost one-quarter of women in Canada report postpartum depression and related mental health issues after childbirth. This has been more common among racialized women who face socioeconomic disadvantages. In addition to facing barriers in accessing healthcare and social services, poor postpartum mental health literacy (MHL) among racialized women can lead to difficulty in identifying postpartum mental health issues and seeking help to prevent and address them. This in turn leads to negative consequences not only for mothers but for their children's and families' health. Despite the ongoing efforts taken to mitigate the postpartum mental health burden in Canada, the racialized mothers' needs are unmet. This calls our attention to collaboratively work with racialized women to understand their unique postpartum mental health needs and seek out their help to design customized interventions to improve women's postpartum MHL and help-seeking attitudes. Our study aims to bridge this gap by engaging racialized mothers and other knowledge users from British Columbia, Canada. We will 1) explore the perspectives of racialized women about their postpartum MHL needs and experiences of help-seeking; 2) explore the perspectives of health care and community service providers about the facilitators and barriers that shape racialized mothers' experiences accessing and utilizing existing mental health resources; 3) co-develop a series of mental health support video resources with mothers; and 4) assess the usability and applicability of the video intervention among racialized postpartum women for its future expansion. Through this project, racialized women will receive an opportunity to have their voices heard and partake in suggesting solutions for promoting their MHL and confidence in seeking support. The findings of this study will guide our future research work in reducing the burden of postpartum mental health problems and their impacts.