| Abstract [eng] |
SUMMARY Lubauskaitė, G. (2025). Women’s experiences of self and interpersonal relationships in postpartum depression: a qualitative study. Master ‘s thesis. Vilnius: Vilnius University, p. 79. Introduction. Postpartum depression is one of the most common mental health disorders experienced following childbirth. It is experienced by 17.7% of women globally (Khadka et al., 2024), while 50% of cases remain undiagnosed (Amer et al., 2024). Depression affects mother’s perceptions of self, child, others and motherhood itself (Harasawa et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2025). Thus, it is crucial to understand how postpartum depression can interfere with woman's relationship with self and others. Objective. To explore the experience of motherhood among women who have experienced postpartum depression: the characteristics of their changing relationships with themselves, their child, the people around them and with concept of the motherhood itself. Participants. The study included 19 women with postpartum depression, aged between 25 and 41 years at the time of the data collection. The children were between 1 and 7 years old. Research methodology. The study data were collected using an in-depth semi-structured biographical interview method (Wengraf, 2011). The thematic analysis method of Braun and Clarke (2022) was used for data analysis. Results. The data analysis revealed four main themes, 19 sub-themes and 10 sub-subthemes. The main themes were: (1) “Me or the child”; (2) “Relationship with others”; (3) “Intervention - psychotherapeutic/medication-based treatment, peer support groups"; (4) “Ongoing difficulties”. Findings revealed women's experiences prior to and their experiences and relationship challenges during the postpartum depression, the significance of external support and subsequent changes (or lack thereof) in their perception of self, the child, their environment, and motherhood itself. Conclusions. The findings revealed that women experiencing postpartum depression remember what they were like in the past, but see it as a foreign part of themselves, feeling unable to live in the present or imagine the future. The women feel as if they not only relinquished their former sense of self but also were unsuccessful in integrating their new maternal identity.When in this state, women experience anger, feel disconnected from themselves, the child and others around them. Only when receiving the external help, they are able to reclaim their former self and, after discovering the relationship with motherhood that existed physically but not emotionally, integrate the new identity of being a mother. Keywords: postpartum depression, postpartum melancholia, postpartum psychosis, primaty maternal preoccupation, good enough mother, containment, true self. |
