ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020
"A Woman Is a Puppet." Women's Disempowerment and Prenatal Anxiety in Pakistan: A Qualitative Study of Sources, Mitigators, and Coping Strategies for Anxiety in Pregnancy.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03880032 (Happy Mother-Healthy Baby), which is not on this map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Happy Mother-Healthy Baby: An Anxiety-focused Early Prenatal Intervention for the Prevention of Common Mental Disorders in Pakistan
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multiple mediation analysis of a task-shared psychosocial intervention for perinatal anxiety: Exploratory findings from a randomized controlled trial in Pakistan.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Trial
- Perceived Social Support and Women's Empowerment and Their Associations with Pregnancy Experiences in Anxious Women: A Study from Urban Pakistan.Maternal and child health journal · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Effects of a Prenatal Anxiety Randomized Controlled Trial Intervention on Infant Development in Pakistan.Academic pediatricsTrial
- The Association of Spousal Relationship Quality and Social Support With Maternal-Infant Bonding: Moderating Roles of Maternal Age and Paternal Occupation.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant StudiesTrial
- Perinatal mental health and its social determinants: qualitative findings from rural Telangana.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Social Support and Spousal Relationship Quality Improves Responsiveness among Anxious Mothers.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- The Mediating Role of Prenatal Attachment Between Pregnancy Distress and Prenatal Coping Among Chinese Women in the Third Trimester: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Perinatal anxiety and compromised bond: A qualitative study of cultural scripts, structural barriers and maternal emotional negotiations in Pakistan.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Maternal self-efficacy during infancy: Investigating the roles of depression and social support among mothers in rural Pakistan.Infant mental health journal · 2025Article
- Determinant factors and coping strategies for depression among pregnant women: an intervention-based qualitative study in Lahore, Pakistan.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Exploring and comparing the relationship between maternal anxiety and children's anxiety during admission, hospitalization, and discharge in pediatric wards of Iranian hospitals.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Exploring preference for delivery methods for a psychosocial intervention for prenatal anxiety: A qualitative study from a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Women's awareness of perinatal mental health conditions and the acceptability of being asked about mental health in two regions in India: a qualitative study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Coping Experiences of Nigerian Women during Pregnancy and Labour: A Qualitative Study.International journal of community based nursing and midwifery · 2023Article
- Individual and collective contribution of antenatal psychosocial distress conditions and preterm birth in Pakistani women.PloS one · 2023Article
- Cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of the Pregnancy Experience Scale-Brief version (PES-Brief) in Pakistani women with antenatal anxiety symptoms.SSM. Mental health · 2022Article
- Pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative examination of ways of coping.Archives of women's mental health · 2022Article
- Antenatal anxiety and depression: Frequency and correlates during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2022Article
- Social support and intimate partner violence in rural Pakistan: A longitudinal investigation of the bi-directional relationship.SSM - population health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Common mental disorders are highly prevalent among pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries, yet prenatal anxiety remains poorly understood, particularly in the sociocultural context of South Asia. Our study explored sources, mitigators, and coping strategies for anxiety among symptomatic pregnant women in Pakistan, particularly in relation to autonomy in decision-making and social support. We interviewed 19 pregnant married women aged 18-37 years recruited from 2017-2018 at a public hospital in Rawalpindi who screened positive for anxiety. Thematic analysis was based on both inductive emergent codes and deductive a priori constructs of pregnancy-related empowerment. Gender norms emerged as an important dimension of Pakistani women's social environment in both constraining pregnancy-related agency and contributing to prenatal anxiety. Women's avenues of self-advocacy were largely limited to indirect means such as appeals to the husband for intercession or return to her natal home. The levels of autonomy during pregnancy depended on the area of decision-making, and peer/family support was a critical protective factor and enabling resource for maternal mental health. Women's disempowerment is a key contextual factor in the sociocultural experience of prenatal maternal anxiety in South Asia, and further examination of the intersections between empowerment and perinatal mental illness might help inform the development of more context-specific preventive approaches.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.