Abstract
Background
Poor mental health is considered a major health challenge globally, not least for
young people, who will form families within forthcoming years. Research related to
childbirth and parenthood transition has focused on how to promote good mental health
by preventing mental illness.
Aim
We discuss how a salutogenetic approach to mental health in parenthood transition
is beneficial, and specifically how the component of meaningfulness in Sense of Coherence (SoC), could be investigated to optimize good mental health
during parenthood transition.
Discussion
In more recent understandings of meaningfulness, ideas from existential philosophy and psychology have been included. We discuss
how, from an existential psychological perspective, open and explorative questioning
of life conditions and dilemmas may help to regain one’s footing and get in touch
with one’s driving force – meaningfulness. Such questioning implies that someone, a professional or a friend, actively and relationally
helps explore existential aspects of life.
Conclusion
We believe that investigating and asking research questions pointing at optimizing
a salutogenetic perspective, specifically focusing on the component of meaningfulness and its embedded existential aspects of life, could lead to new knowledge on how
to promote good mental health in maternity care.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Women and BirthAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Births in England and Wales by Characteristics of Birth 2, 2012.Office for National Statistics, London2013
- Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence, Practice: Summary Report/A Report From the World Health Organization, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Collaboration With the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and the University of Melbourne.WHO, Geneva2004
- Why Investing in Mental Health in Europe?.2013 (. (Accessed 30 of August 2021))
- Supporting Young People’s Mental Health Through the COVID-19 Crisis.OECD, Paris2021
National Institute of Public Health UoSD, Authority DH. The Danish National Health Survey In: The Capital Region RZ, The South Denmark Region, The Central Denmark Region, The North Denmark Region, Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, editor. 2010-2017. www.danskernessundhed.dk 2017.
- Youth Survey Report 2020.Mission Australia, Sydney, NSW2020
- ‘Mental health is what makes life worth living’: an exploration of lay people’s understandings of mental health in Denmark.Int. J. Ment. Health Promot. 2017; 19: 26-37
- Improving Maternal Mental Health.World Health Organization, Geneva2008
- Psychosocial interventions for perinatal common mental disorders delivered by providers who are not mental health specialists in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS Med. 2013; 10e1001541
- No health without ‘mental health’.J. Public Health. 2018; 40: 444-
- Delivering the Thinking Healthy Programme for perinatal depression through peers: an individually randomised controlled trial in India.Lancet Psychiatry. 2019; 6: 115-127
- Postpartum depressive symptoms: gestational weight gain as a risk factor for adolescents who are overweight or obese.J. Midwifery Womens Health. 2018; 63: 178-184
- Mother’s mental health after childbirth: Does the delivery method matter?.J. Health Econ. 2019; 63: 182
- Use of an educational intervention to increase screening for antenatal depression in an obstetrics and gynecology practice.J. Am. Assoc. Nurse Pract. 2020; 33: 1093-1099
- A public health approach to perinatal mental health: improving health and wellbeing of mothers and babies.J. Gynecol. Obstet. Hum. Reprod. 2020; 49: 101747
- A narrative review of studies addressing the clinical effectiveness of perinatal depression screening programs.Women Birth: J. Aust. Coll. Midwives. 2020; 33: 51-59
- Disclosure during prenatal mental health screening.J. Affect. Disord. 2015; 186: 90-94
- Screening for postpartum depression with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS): an ethical analysis.Scand. J. Public Health. 2008; 36: 211-216
- The complexity of postpartum mental health and illness: a critical realist study.Nurs. Inq. 2012; 19: 51-62
- Unraveling the Mystery of Health: How People Manage Stress and Stay Well.1st ed. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco1987
- Sense of coherence: definition and explanation.Int. J. Soc. Welf. 2006; 15: 219-229
- The Handbook of Salutogenesis.2nd ed. Springer International Publishing, Cham2022
- Generalized resistance resources in the salutogenic model of health.in: Mittelmark M.B. Bauer G.F. Vaandrager L. The Handbook of Salutogenesis. 2nd ed. Springer, 2022: 93-107
- The salutogenetic approach to maternity care: from theory to practice and research.in: Church S. Frith L. Balaam M.C. Berg M. Smith V. van der Walt C. Downe S. van Teijlingen E. New Thinking on Improving Maternity Care. 1st ed. Pinter & Martin, London2017
- Association of psychosocial-spiritual experiences around childbirth and subsequent perinatal mental health outcomes: an integrated review.J. Reprod. Infant Psychol. 2020; 38: 60-85
- Mental health economics: a prospective study on psychological flourishing and associations with healthcare costs and sickness benefit transfers in Denmark.Ment. Health Prev. 2021; 200222
- Coping with existential threats and the inevitability of asking for meaningfulness.in: Dawson S. Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy. The Paideia Archive, Boston, Massachusetts1998
- Validity of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale: a systematic review.J. Epidemiol. Community Health. 2005; 59: 460-466
- Does one’s sense of coherence change after an acute myocardial infarction?: a two-year longitudinal study in Sweden.Nurs. Health Sci. 2011; 13: 156-163
- Asking different questions: a call to action for research to improve the quality of care for every woman, every child.Birth. 2018; 45: 222-231
- Salutogenesis as a theory, as an orientation and as the sense of coherence.in: Mittelmark M.B. Bauer G.F. Vaandrager L. The Handbook of Salutogenesis. 2nd ed. Springer International Publishing, Cham2022: 11-19
- Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy.Washington Square Press, Oxford1963
- Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-lived.(MEP. S) American Psychological Association, Washington DC2003
- Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing.Am. Psychol. 2005; 60: 678-686
WA MH. actbelongcommit.org. Online Mentally Healthy WA; 2022.
- For mental sundhed - et nyt perspektiv.Statens Institut for Folkesundhed, København2015
- Existential therapy.in: Dryden W. Individual Therapy in Britain. Harper & Row, London1984
- Research on meaning-making and health in secular society: secular, spiritual and religious existential orientations.Soc. Sci. Med. 2010; 71: 1292-1299
- Six understandings of the word’ spirituality’ in a secular country.Arch. Psychol. Religions. 2012; 34: 63-81
- Parental-couple separation during the transition to parenthood.Nurs. Open. 2021; 8: 2622-2636
- Existential aspects in the transition to parenthood based on interviews and a theatre workshop.Sex. Reprod. Healthc. 2021; 28
- Salutogenic qualities of midwifery care: a best-fit framework synthesis.Women Birth: J. Aust. Coll. Midwives. 2021; 34: 266-277
- An existential and spiritual discussion about childbirth: contrasting spirituality at the beginning and end of life.Spiritual. Clin. Pract. 2018; 5: 261-272
- The Existential Crisis of Motherhood.1st ed. Springer International Publishing, Cham2020
- Invitation to Existential Psychology. A Psychology for the Unique Human Being and Its Applications in Therapy.John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester2007
- Mor. En historie om blodet.C & K Forlag, Danmark2016
- Mit arbejde: roman.1. udgave ed. Gyldendal, Kbh2020
- Til min søster: roman.1. udgave ed. Gyldendal, Kbh2019
- The Danish Parliament Bedre fødsler - forslag om indførelse af rettigheder til fødende (Better Births - Proposal on Implementation of Rights for Birthing Persons). The Danish Parliament, 2021 (B 291)
- Midwifery and quality care: findings from a new evidence-informed framework for maternal and newborn care.Lancet. 2014; 2060789-3
Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 11, 2022
Accepted:
February 1,
2022
Received in revised form:
January 28,
2022
Received:
October 6,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
