Postpartum Depression in an Online Community of Lesbian Mothers: Implications for Clinical Practice

Abstract

A growing number of lesbians are choosing to conceive and raise children. Online communities for lesbian mothers are increasingly popular and discussion forums specific to postpartum depression (PPD) are emerging. Online ethnography (netnography) and content analysis were employed to assess the role of an online forum in PPD and to investigate how the shared experiences of lesbian birth mothers with PPD might inform clinical practice. Disclosure, coping, treatment-seeking, medications, perseverance, and comorbid conditions emerged as themes that characterize online messages and participant experiences. Findings have implications for assessing risks of PPD and for increasing help-seeking behavior among lesbian mothers.

For Better or for Worse? A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Social Media Use and Depression Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Minorities (Preprint)

“…For studies that captured age of participants [35][36][37][41][42][43]45], age ranged between 11 and 30 years old. Three studies (27.3%) did not report participants' age range [38,39,44]. Seven studies included both male and female participants [35,[37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…Two studies included only female participants [43,44], and one study had an exclusively male sample [36]. Two studies included a sample of transgender participants with this group comprising 0.9% [40] and 0.8% [42] of the total.…”

“…Depression was operationalized as depressive symptoms in 44.4% of studies [36,[40][41][42]45], psychological distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) in 22.2% [35,37], suicidality in 33.3% [37][38][39], and 11.1% of studies assessed either engagement in physical fights [38], or emotional responses to cyberbullying (including feelings of depression) [40]. Qualitative studies analyzed depressionrelated themes including social, emotional, and health consequences caused by the stress from managing participants' Facebook profile [43] and the emotional experience derived from using an online support forum [44].…”

“…Of the studies included, 72.7% consisted of cross-sectional surveys [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], 18.2% consisted of qualitative analyses (Table 1) [43,44], and 9.1% combined cross-sectional surveys with social network analysis [45]. For studies that captured age of participants [35][36][37][41][42][43]45], age ranged between 11 and 30 years old.…”

“…Of nine quantitative studies, SMU was assessed by measuring self-reported experience of cyberbullying (33.3%) [37,38,42], frequency of SMU (22.2%) [40,41], general use of SM (dichotomously) (22.2%) [36,39], and 11.1% of studies measured either sexting behavior [35], integration of social ties on SM [45], number of SM platforms used [41], or motivation to use SM [41]. Qualitative studies explored use of Facebook profile management [43] and experience of using an online support forum [44]. …”