Social Support Postpartum: Bengali Women from India on Their Coping Experiences following Childbirth

Moumita Gupta, Mahua Patra, Mohammad Hamiduzzaman (), Helen McLaren and Emi Patmisari
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Moumita Gupta: Department of Anthropology, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Government College, West Bengal State University, Rajarhat, Kolkata 7000163, India
Mahua Patra: Department of Sociology, Maulana Azad College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700013, India
Mohammad Hamiduzzaman: University Centre for Rural Health, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health, The University of Sydney, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia
Helen McLaren: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia
Emi Patmisari: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: Undertaken in Kolkata, India, our study aimed to explore the experiences of Bengali middle-class women on perceived stressful events, social support, and coping experiences following childbirth. Becoming a mother following childbirth is a shared phenomenon irrespective of culture, social strata, or country, while stress during the postpartum period or depression is not. Discrete medical intervention does not sufficiently address the complexities of postpartum experiences since influencing factors also include economic, political, cultural, and social backgrounds. Adopting a feminist and phenomenological approach, individual in-person interviews were conducted with twenty women recruited via snowball sampling. Our findings revealed that events experienced as stressful may lead to poor postpartum well-being. Underpinned by gendered discourse and biases, stressful events included familial imperatives for a male child, poor social and emotional support from the family, mostly partners and fathers, and systemic workplace barriers. The women in our study commonly resided with their mothers postpartum. They expressed feeling sheltered from these experiences, cared for, and supported. We discuss the women’s experiences from a feminist pragmatic worldview, which advocates for a flexible feminism recognizant of the unique and nurturing relationship experiences between Bengali middle-class women and their mothers. In conclusion, we advocate for culturally sensitive, women-centered postpartum care practices that may entail the inclusion of intergenerational care during this critical phase of maternal well-being. These insights underscore the necessity of tailoring postpartum support systems to align with the cultural and familial contexts of the individuals they serve.

Keywords: postpartum care; social support; Bengali middle-class; mother–daughter bonding; lived experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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