Child Death and Mothers’ Subsequent Mental Health in a High‐Mortality African Community

Emily Smith‐Greenaway, Abigail Weitzman and Eric Lungu

Population and Development Review, 2024, vol. 50, issue 4, 1117-1147

Abstract: Despite declines in child mortality rates, experiencing a child death remains a common feature of motherhood in many contemporary African populations. Yet, we lack population insights into the consequences of child death for mothers’ well‐being in the high‐mortality regions where it concentrates. Contrasting an extensive psychology literature on the severe and long‐lasting consequences of child death for parents in low‐mortality settings, a long‐standing thesis in multiple social science literature is that the normativity of child death in high‐mortality settings can lead to a numbing effect—muting parents’ reactions to child loss. Yet, select anthropological accounts challenge this thesis, arguing instead that child death can also bear notable consequences for bereaved parents in communities where it is common. This study brings population data to bear, analyzing two representative samples of women in Balaka, Malawi, to examine if child death has measurable mental health consequences for mothers, including elevated and/or worsening depressive symptoms. Further, the study explores the potential influence of children's near‐death experiences on mothers. The results offer evidence that child loss—and the ever‐present threat of it—are underappreciated drivers of women's poor mental health, and overall well‐being.

Date: 2024
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