Southeast and East Asian immigrant women’s transnational postpartum experiences: A meta‐ethnography

Abstract

The increase in births to Southeast and East Asian (SEEA) immigrants in their adopted countries is of international importance. SEEA women experience the postpartum period differently than that of the general population. Despite the documented difference, there is limited representation of SEEA women in the literature. The purpose of this meta‐ethnography is to synthesise the qualitative findings from different research studies examining the experiences of SEEA immigrant women during the first 4–6 weeks of the postpartum period and has been written in adherence with enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (PRISMA). Noblit and Hare's meta‐ethnographic approach was used. Seven articles (four qualitative and three mixed‐methods studies) were reviewed, analysed and synthesised. Four themes emerged: two were facilitators of birth culture (availability and quality of social support and maternity care provider cultural knowledge and response) and two were barriers to birth culture (lack of structural and social support and cultural alienation after childbirth). Due to lack of structural and social support in SEEA immigrant women's adopted countries, they also experienced social and economic hardships after childbirth and made conscious decisions to modify their postpartum cultural practices out of convenience and practicality. SEEA immigrant women also experienced discrimination from maternity care providers, which prevented them from fully engaging in postpartum cultural practices. Maternity care providers can advocate and intervene for SEEA immigrant women by eliciting any postpartum cultural beliefs, assess their social and economic needs early on in prenatal care and make culturally congruent referrals based on those assessments.

Filling the GAAAPPS: Generating affirming Asian American perinatal psychological services.

“…Additionally, Asians tend to report somatic, rather than affective, symptoms of depression and anxiety, which might contribute to inappropriate diagnosis and treatment when using Western diagnostic systems (Halbreich & Karkun, 2006; Kalibatseva & Leong, 2011). Further, Asian women can experience unique risk factors for PMADs, including conflict with in-laws, intergenerational conflict, dissatisfaction with the baby’s gender, premarital pregnancy, limited access to structural and social supports, cultural alienation after childbirth, and a lack of maternity care provider’s cultural knowledge and response (Roomruangwong & Epperson, 2011; Schwank et al, 2020; Vo, 2021).…”

The Lived Experience of Postpartum Intergenerational Conflict of Vietnamese American Women with their Vietnamese Immigrant Parents

“…In Asian cultures, female ancestors' roles are to produce, nurture, and raise children in the home. Women in many Asian families hold the expectation of familial support to assist new mothers with childrearing and postpartum cultural practices (Vo, 2023). In Vietnamese birth culture, postpartum cultural practices are referred to as doing-themonth, a period of 30-45 days during which new mothers observe a series of traditional practices designed for healing and recovery, both physically and emotionally (Lundberg & Trieu, 2011).…”

“…Some of the key practices include confinement, diet, massage, warming through indirect heat, herbal remedies, and family support ( Nguyen et al, 2022;Ta Park et al, 2017). However, not all postpartum cultural practices are used in modern Vietnamese society, but still influence the beliefs of Vietnamese American mothers (Vo & Desai, 2021). Postpartum intergenerational conflict can occur when women assess their options to come up with solutions, which they see "fit" not only with who they think they are, but also with what they evaluate as the best solutions for their situation (Connelly, 2006).…”

Immigrant Southeast and East Asian mothers’ transnational postpartum cultural practices: A meta-ethnography

“…However, for SEEA immigrant mothers, maternity care providers in the new country were unaware of participants’ birth culture, values, and belief systems, which made them feel alienated. 26 , 27 Hence, a few mothers reported nurses’ lack of culturally affirming care: The nurse said . .…”