Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Remembering Postpartum Depression In Later Life: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Walker Ladd Phd

The Qualitative Report

Postpartum depression (PPD) occurs in as many as 1 in 7 women (Gavin et al., 2005). PPD remains underdiagnosed and largely untreated, contributing to high societal costs and increased maternal mortality. Despite the wealth of research reporting the adverse effects of PPD on childbearing women and their offspring, little is known about how women who have experienced PPD describe or interpret the meaning of the experience in later life. I conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 10 women self-identifying as having had PPD a minimum of 13 years in the past. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) I identified …