Table 2 Characteristics of included studies
Study | Country | Participants | SES and Ethnicity | Study aim | Data collection | Analytic Approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[1] | USA | Pregnant and postpartum women | SES: Filipino and Hawaiian (Low SES), Japanese (middle to upper SES) Mixed Ethnicities | To describe themes of stressors reported by women living in rural communities known as East Hawaii on the island of Hawaii | Focus groups | Ethnographic summary approach and systematic coding via content analysis |
[2] | Pakistan | Pregnant women (n=28) | Different SES and Ethnic groups | This study aimed to explore components and dimensions of pregnancy anxiety. | Semi-structured interviews | Content analysis |
[3] | England | Pregnant women (n=19) | SES: Low-income urban, peri-urban, and rural populations Ethnicity: not given | The study aimed to develop a culturally appropriate, feasible, and acceptable psychological intervention for perinatal anxiety in the context of a low-income population in Pakistan. | Interviews with pregnant women attending the outpatient clinics | Framework analysis |
[4] | England | Women 6-12 weeks after birth (n=148) | SES: 43.2% were educated to degree level and only two women had no educational qualifications (1.4%). Most were in employment (83%) Ethnicity: White European (94.3%), followed by Asian (2.8%), other (1.9%), and African (0.9%) | The study aimed to address these methodological issues by identifying key stressors during the perinatal period, using a method that encourages open and honest reporting. | Women wrote anonymously about a situation they found stressful as part of the Health after Birth Trial (HABiT) of expressive writing | Content analysis |
[7] | USA | Pregnant women (n=23) | Ethnicity: White (91.1) Black (8.7) SES: Low income mothers | The study aimed to describe stress exposures, stress responses, and priorities for stress reduction among a sample of low-income rural pregnant women | Qualitative interviews | Qualitative descriptive approach |
[11] | USA | Pregnant women (n=96) | Ethnicity: White (52) African Americans (44) SES: Low income | The study aimed to identify factors that influenced stress, healthy lifestyle behaviors (healthful eating and physical activity) during pregnancy | Focus group discussions | - |
[14] | USA | Mothers who birthed an infant aged between 6 weeks and 6 months (n=21) | Ethnicity: Caucasian (95%) African American (5%) SES: Low income mothers | This study aimed to determine how maternal distress influences mothers’ transition to becoming a mother and to validate the use of the Maternal Distress Concept in the clinical setting | Semi-structured interviews | Directed content analysis |
[19] | England | Women who gave birth within 9 months postpartum (n=19) | Not given | The aim of the study was to explore women’s experience of anxiety in pregnancy and their views on the use of anxiety instruments in antenatal care. | Focus group discussions | Template analysis |
[24] | England | Women/pregnant women within one year postpartum (n=23) | Mixed Ethnicities SES not given | The aim of the current study is to use a qualitative approach to explore women’s experience of PNA, in particular, considering the main sources of their anxiety (i.e. triggers) and the support/coping strategies they use in both online and offline contexts. the aim of this study is twofold. First, to qualitatively explore women’s experience of anxiety triggers and support in the perinatal period; and second to gain insight into what online support is acceptable for women with PNA. | Focus groups | Inductive thematic analysis |
Razurel et al., [41] | Switzerland | Women six weeks after birth (n=90) | Mixed SES Ethnicity not given | The aims of this study were to investigate events perceived as stressful by primiparous mothers during the postpartum period and perceived social support, and to identify coping strategies. | Semi- structured interviews | An iterative approach was used to construct an ‘analytical tree' |
[43] | Australia | Mothers of infants up to one year (n=20) | SES: Participants were on average more socioeconomically-advantaged than the general population of women who have recently given birth in Victoria Ethnicity not given | This study aimed to investigate the sources of worry and anxiety that women identify in the perinatal social and health milieu, the language and contexts they use to describe them, and the meaning that they ascribe to their experiences. | Discussion groups | Thematic analysis |
[26] | Tanzania | Pregnant and postpartum women (n=10) | Mixed SES Ethnicity not given | To explore and understand the experiences and priorities of pregnant women living with fears and worries related to fetal/infant and maternal health, the birthing process and ability to parent the infant (ie,pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA)) in Mwanza, Tanzania | Semi-structured interviews | Descriptive phenomenological approach |
[46] | USA | Pregnant women between gestational weeks of 12 and 18 (n=31) | Ethnicity: White (74.1%) Asian (16.2%) and Black or African American (2.1%) SES: sample was highly educated with 85.5% having at least an associate’s degree, and 69.7% reported household incomes of $100,000 | The aim of this study were to measure pregnancy-specific anxiety quantitatively and evaluate this anxiety qualitatively in women pregnant via IVF using a mixed methods approach by describing the level of pregnancy-related anxiety in women pregnant via IVF during early second trimester, and to identify themes in anxiety specific to pregnancy. | Semi structured interviews (open ended questions) | Content analysis |