ArticleFrontiers in psychology2021
Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England's First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence of postpartum depression in the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of postpartum depression in women amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2022Pooled it
- Co-designing and evaluating a prenatal yoga intervention for ethnic minority women: a feasibility study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
- Implementation of singing groups for postnatal depression: experiences of participants and professional stakeholders in the SHAPER-PND randomised controlled trial.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- The gap between the need for parental support and support provided during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study with first-time mothers' experiences.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Social support during pregnancy and the risk of postpartum depression in Polish women: A prospective study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Effect of a structured health promotional program using the self-support groups on lifestyle behavior: TheJournal of education and health promotion · 2024Article
- The impact of postpartum social support on postpartum mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Archives of women's mental health · 2023Article
- Breastfeeding Practices and Postpartum Depression in Mexican Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Prevalence and Factors of Postpartum Depression During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Understanding the impact of an AI-enabled conversational agent mobile app on users' mental health and wellbeing with a self-reported maternal event: a mixed method real-world data mHealth study.Frontiers in global women's health · 2023Article
- Associations between breastfeeding intention, breastfeeding practices and post-natal depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-country cross-sectional study.Maternal & child nutrition · 2023Article
- Postnatal depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: The needs and experiences of New Zealand mothers and health care providers.Midwifery · 2022Article
- Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes Associated with Mild COVID-19 Infection in an Obstetric Cohort in Brazil.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2022Article
- Beware the "loneliness gap"? Examining emerging inequalities and long-term risks of loneliness and isolation emerging from COVID-19.The Australian journal of social issues · 2022Article
- "Showing Everybody's True Colors": Informal networks of low-income single mothers and their young children during the COVID-19 pandemic.Children and youth services review · 2022Article
- Welcoming new life under lockdown: Exploring the experiences of first-time mothers who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic.British journal of health psychology · 2022Article
- The male breadwinner nuclear family is not the 'traditional' human family, and promotion of this myth may have adverse health consequences.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Insights into women's experiences of giving birth during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic in Jordan, a cross-sectional survey.Women's health (London, England)Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Postnatal/postpartum depression (PND/PPD) had a pre-COVID-19 estimated prevalence ranging up to 23% in Europe, 33% in Australia, and 64% in America, and is detrimental to both mothers and their infants. Low social support is a key risk factor for developing PND. From an evolutionary perspective this is perhaps unsurprising, as humans evolved as cooperative childrearers, inherently reliant on social support to raise children. The coronavirus pandemic has created a situation in which support from social networks beyond the nuclear family is likely to be even more important to new mothers, as it poses risks and stresses for mothers to contend with; whilst at the same time, social distancing measures designed to limit transmission create unprecedented alterations to their access to such support. Using data from 162 mothers living in London with infants aged ≤6 months, we explore how communication with members of a mother's social network related to her experience of postnatal depressive symptoms during the first "lockdown" in England. Levels of depressive symptoms, as assessed via the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, were high, with 47.5% of the participants meeting a ≥11 cut-off for PND. Quasi-Poisson regression modelling found that the number of network members seen in-person, and remote communication with a higher proportion of those not seen, was negatively associated with depressive symptoms; however, contact with a higher proportion of relatives was positively associated with symptoms, suggesting kin risked seeing mothers in need. Thematic qualitative analysis of open text responses found that mothers experienced a burden of constant mothering, inadequacy of virtual contact, and sadness and worries about lost social opportunities, while support from partners facilitated family bonding. While Western childrearing norms focus on intensive parenting, and fathers are key caregivers, our results highlight that it still "takes a village" to raise children in high-income populations and mothers are struggling in its absence.
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