Health Care for Women International
Volume 37, Issue 9, 2016, Pages 1010-1024

Mourning the support of women postpartum: The experiences of migrants in Cape Town, South Africa (Article)

Hunter-Adams J.*
  • a Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

The maintenance of social networks amongst migrant diasporas has been previously emphasized. When caring for a new baby in particular, however, hands-on social supports are needed. These social supports are poorly understood for migrants. This qualitative study of maternal postpartum support included 23 in-depth interviews with postpartum migrant women and nine focus groups with adult men and women (N = 48) in Cape Town. The absence of nonworking women specifically, and social support generally, was central to migrants' descriptions of stress and infant feeding. The absence of elder and other nonworking women in migrant contexts may add vulnerability to already marginal communities. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

information processing human infant feeding social network Aged social support procedures qualitative research Breast Feeding South Africa Surveys and Questionnaires interview Humans migrant psychology mourning Interviews as Topic male female Infant stress questionnaire pregnancy clinical article adult Social Environment migration postnatal care Transients and Migrants Postpartum Period puerperium Focus Groups

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84969795438&doi=10.1080%2f07399332.2016.1185106&partnerID=40&md5=8945376d0e687a5ae31ae44314bf79a5

DOI: 10.1080/07399332.2016.1185106
ISSN: 07399332
Cited by: 4
Original Language: English