Postpartum Depression and Access to Mental Healthcare among Migrant South Asian Women in Canada: A Literature Review

Although there has been an increase in research on postpartum depression (PPD) among migrant Asian women, there is particularly limited attention given to migrant South Asian women. This is a significant limitation considering the rapidly changing demographics in Canada. Migrant South Asian women face a plethora of unique challenges, which affects their mental health and further prevents them from receiving adequate and equitable mental healthcare services. For migrant South Asian women, many of these stressors are especially amalgamated in the vulnerable postpartum period, resulting in variances of postpartum mood disorders such as postpartum blues, non-psychotic postpartum depression, and in more severe cases, postpartum psychosis. While cultural values and rituals may be protective in curbing PPD symptoms in some instances, in other cases, however, they exacerbate and perhaps even worsen PPD. The objective of this literature review is to provide a basic understanding of postpartum depression among the migrant South Asian community in Canada. It aims to answer questions pertaining to the types of postpartum mood disorders that women can potentially suffer from, its risk factors, its prevalence among migrant women, as well as the socio-cultural and gender-related barriers to attaining access to mental healthcare services and treatments for PPD in Canada. Around 40 documents were examined, summarized and synthesized for this literature review. These included scholarly journal articles, non-scholarly articles, health-related websites, position papers, and medical journals.