Table 3 Supplementary Quotations

I. Shame and Guilt in Motherhood

“Because I went back to placement when he [the baby] was nine weeks old, […] I felt so guilty because I felt like I was missing out on him, on his upbringing and I thought that maybe I’d put university or my ambitions first and I didn’t like how it made me feel.” (Participant 12, Black British)

“It is hard to talk to people because people make you feel like you’re a bad mum. They think you are complaining, and you don’t want to complain to the wrong person because some people can’t get pregnant, some people can’t have babies. The last thing they want to hear is someone complaining about being pregnant because it is the most beautiful thing in the world, but it is hard.” (Participant 17, Mixed Other)

“I thought it was my fault because he [the baby] had meconium […]. It stuck his lungs together and there was a point I thought it was my fault.” (Participant 8, Mixed Other)

“I didn’t tell everyone what I was going through, I just kept it to a handful of people because I was ashamed, of saying ‘I don’t like this pregnancy, I don’t like this baby’.” (Participant 9, Arab)

II. Women as Caregivers

“After that, I tried always to not be so paranoid about how the house is and if the cooking is done, be more relaxed and think of myself and baby, and not about the household or work or anything else. I was just a bit more considerate to myself.” (Participant 14, Black British)

“Sometimes I am suffering a lot because of the headaches. […] And I’m crying and my eldest son, he’s asking why is mummy always crying? Grown-ups are not allowed to cry. So well, it’s difficult to cry in from of them. Most of the time I’m going into the bathroom.” (Participant 2, Asian)

III. Perceived to Be Strong and Often Dismissed

“I think part of the thing with a woman, they don’t like to admit until it’s really bad. (Participant 10, White Other)

“I’m the kind of person that keeps things to myself a lot. If something is really wrong, I would say but if it’s smaller, I will keep it to myself.” (Participant 16, White Other)

I. Blind Faith in the Medical Profession

“That’s why professional opinions are so important because it is balanced. A professional person will never tell you what to do. They will guide you and that is what I appreciate.” (Participant 17, Mixed Other)

“I would recommend it to them [other women in similar positions] and for them to have more support from the Consultant.” (Participant 4, British Asian)

II. Family and Community Beliefs about Mental Health and Care

“It’s just because obviously I was brought up in a Caribbean Pentecostal household, so it’s very hard for them to talk about mental health.” (Participant 11, Black British)

“In terms of the Arabic culture, there’s very little understanding around mental health, even less so around maternal mental health.” (Participant 13, Arab)

“You don’t talk about your mental health. Nobody has mental health, like you just don’t talk about it.” (Participant 15, British Asian)

“They [my parents] are supportive, but I wouldn’t necessarily talk to them about my psychological problems, because they would tend to just worry and wouldn’t know how to help, and they wouldn’t understand that you can seek this help and all that.” (Participant 5, British Asian)

III. Intergenerational Trauma and Family Dynamics

“I will be honest with you; I have seen a few things and I believe a lot of my mental health came from my bloody dad. He is as mad as anything.” (Participant 17, Mixed Other)

“You are asking about my family, including my parents in Sri Lanka, with my sister and my elder brother. I am not contacting them, but I only contacted my brothers […]. I’m only contacting two of them over the phone, sometime over email and they, I mean, they’re contacting my parents and I’m getting information through them. I am not straight contacting them [my parents].” (Participant 2, Asian)

I. The Importance of Understanding Cultural Differences

“For me, a plus was that most of the people that I came in contact with were Black, or some ethnic background, and to me that’s quite important because they would be able to understand my lived experience.” (Participant 12, Black British)

“The perinatal nurse was, I think, from Nigeria. We had a similar understanding of things because we are from similar backgrounds culturally. And that was good because we understood each other on many aspects, yes.” (Participant 9, Arab)

“As a Black woman, that was really quite nice to see other women of ethnic minorities in a professional field to do with mental health because there can be more stigma in our communities about that stuff. That felt very good. I did feel a bit sad when the Black mental health nurse left. […] I did miss that presence of having another person who was an ethnic minority. I missed their presence in the service.” (Participant 7, Black British)

“Understanding African culture is very different to West Indian culture and to Somalian culture, understanding and recognising there might need to be different things in place.” (Participant 15, British Asian)

“Maybe that’s the problem with the system because I was married to an African man and there his way of doing things is slightly different” (Participant 3, Black British)

II. The Power of Validation, Reassurance, and Support

“He’s seen me through all of the stages of my mental health struggle. He was definitely the catalyst for me seeking help originally. We’ve been together going to be, well, nine years, so it’s been a long journey. Yeah. And he’s definitely not going anywhere because I know that it’s been a challenge and I have to take that really seriously […]. I love him and he’s been… he just really took it on the chin and he really stepped up to it.” (Participant 1, Black British)

“I didn’t want to go out, I didn’t want to see anyone. […] When I am feeling like that, I usually go to my brother’s house. I stay there for two weeks, or one week or ten days, until I feel better to come home.” (Participant 18, Black British)

“When I was pregnant I wasn’t quite sure whether I was gonna keep the baby… I was still quite upset and things like that. It helped me with that. But contacting the perinatal team they reassured me that if I had the baby it wouldn’t be taken away… so yeah that was good” (Participant 6, Black British)