The purpose of this paper is to present research on the effects of postpartum depression (PPD) on mothers, fathers, and children that point to a re-conceptualization of PPD as a mental health condition that affects the whole family. As such, the objectives of this paper are to discuss: (1) the incidence and effects of PPD on mothers and fathers; (2) common predictors of PPD in mothers and fathers, and (3) the effects of PPD on parenting and parent-child relationships, and (4) the effects of PPD on children's health, and their cognitive and social-emotional development. Finally, the implications for screening and intervention if depression is re-conceptualized as a condition of the family are discussed.

It is estimated that 37% of Canadians experience some types of mental health problem. As a result of the migration process, many immigrant and refugee women suffer serious mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, suicide, and psychosis. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study, informed by the ecological conceptual framework and postcolonial feminist perspectives, was to increase understanding of the mental health care experiences of immigrant and refugee women by acquiring information regarding factors that either support or inhibit coping. Ten women (five born in China and five born in Sudan) who were living with mental illness were interviewed. Analysis revealed that (a) women's personal experience with biomedicine, fear, and lack of awareness about mental health issues influences how they seek help to manage mental illness; (b) lack of appropriate services that suit their needs are barriers for these women to access mental health care; and (c) the women often draw upon informal support systems and practices and self-care strategies to cope with their mental illnesses and its related problems. The authors discuss implications for practice and make recommendations for intervention strategies that will facilitate women's mental health care and future research.

Critical ethnography was used as a pragmatic research methodology to explore the postpartum depression (PPD) experiences of immigrant and refugee women. We examined the social, political, economic, and historical factors that affected the help-seeking behavior of these women during PPD episodes. The critical ethnography method allowed participants to share their experiences with each other and afforded opportunities to the researchers to acknowledge and validate, rather than simply observe and record, their testimony. This study of PPD thus increased our awareness and understanding of the health issues of immigrant and refugee women.

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