Faith, Hope and Love: A Sociological Exploration of Postpartum Depression and Protestant Christianity

Abstract

Recent clinical reviews of postpartum depression (PPD) reveal that social support is crucial for women’s emotional and mental health during this vulnerable time in their lives, yet sociological research on PPD remains scarce. This paper seeks to draw insights from the sociology of social support, religion, and mental health to understand how women interact with social institutions, such as protestant Christianity, to shape their experiences of PPD. I use in-depth interviews with Protestant women from diverse ethnoracial backgrounds and digital observation from online parenting communities to conduct such analysis. Findings show that women actively shape their postpartum experience by using Christianity to frame and cope with their postpartum distress; they also drew various types of social support from local Christian institutions, such as local churches. These findings call for studies of PPD to provide greater attention to how social institutions may benefit or harm postpartum women.