Exploring psychological distress among a sample of pregnant women from a low income area who self-identify as being distressed

Abstract

Psychological distress during pregnancy has been a fairly neglected phenomenon and has only recently started emerging as an area of research interest. The existing body of scholarship on distress during pregnancy has largely been conducted from a positivist paradigm, emphasising the identification, incidences and risks. There is thus a dearth of qualitative inquiry into pregnant women's experiences and accounts of distress. In an attempt to address these gaps within the literature, my study explored psychological distress among a group of pregnant women from socio-economically disadvantaged contexts. The specific objectives of my study was to explore how pregnant women conceptualised psychological distress within the context of pregnancy; the feelings or symptoms of psychological distress; what pregnant women perceived as its causes; and the psychosocial needs of pregnant women in relation to antenatal distress. This study was guided by a feminist approach and a feminist standpoint epistemology in particular. This lent itself to exploring the phenomenon while departing from a clinical, decontextualised position which translated into an investigation with pregnant women who subjectively perceived themselves to be distressed.