Women’s experience of Postpartum Emotional Distress (PPED) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.
Creators: name: Mujeeb, Humaira
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2026

description: Background
 
 Understanding postpartum emotional distress in the context of the COVID-19
 pandemic is important from both theoretical and practical clinical
 perspectives as it can inform future support for women experiencing PPED
 during a pandemic. Considering this, the purpose of the present inquiry
 was to explore women’s experiences of postpartum emotional distress (PPED)
 after giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. 
 
 Methods
 
 The first study is a systematic scoping review of studies that
 investigated various forms of PPED during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim
 was to explore which forms of PPED were researched, the range of
 methodological approaches used, the limitations of these studies as well
 as suggested future direction for further research. The methodology for
 evidence search, synthesis, and reporting of findings was guided by a
 framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and The Joanna
 Briggs Institute’s guidelines (Aromataris, 2020) for scoping reviews. 
 
 The second study was a qualitative exploration of women’s experiences of
 PPED during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. In this study, PPED was
 defined as “an unpleasant emotional state which is more intense than is
 usual for the new mother and lasts most of the day nearly every day for at
 least a couple of weeks and starts within the first few months after
 childbirth.” A critical realist approach guided the research process. The
 data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling
 was used to select participants for the study following criteria which
 included: women over the age of 18 years, who delivered a full-term,
 healthy, and singleton baby during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK,
 experienced PPED, now in a state of recovery residing in UK and are fluent
 in speaking English. The data was analysed using Reflexive Thematic
 Analysis (RTA) to explore the women’s perspective of PPED after giving
 birth during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the essence of their
 experience. 
 
 Findings 
 
 The scoping review provided an overview of 29 papers that were used to
 explore postpartum emotional distress (PPED) during COVID-19 in the UK. In
 particular, it highlighted the trend to focus on exploring depression and
 anxiety and ignoring other forms of PPED. It also shows the tendency of
 researchers to use a quantitative approach to study PPED during the
 COVID-19 pandemic which in terms of numbers was almost double the studies
 that used qualitative or mixed-method approaches and hence dominate the
 research field. The findings of this review helped to identify a gap in
 the literature and provided a context within which the strengths and
 limitations of the second study were evaluated. 
 
 The qualitative study revealed 12 sub-themes which were organised into 4
 over-arching themes which were: 1. The emotional range of PPED, 2. The
 Missing Village, 3. Relying on the online virtual village, and 4. PPED
 changes you as a person. The findings indicate that women’s lived
 experience of PPED is not limited to the experience of anxiety and mood
 disorder for the reason that postpartum women experience a broad range of
 emotional states and their responses to these emotional states are also
 varied and wide-ranging. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the
 emotional state of postpartum women as well as on their response to their
 emotional state is evident. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that women
 would have experienced PPED irrespective of the pandemic but dealing with
 the postpartum stressors and their emotional state of distress would
 likely have been less complicated and more manageable.
 
 Conclusion
 
 PPED needs to be explored and understood as a multifaceted phenomenon that
 involves wide-ranging emotional states and the reaction to these emotional
 states which are varied. Moreover, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
 postpartum mental health is significant and such contextual factors need
 to be understood to better support women.