Perinatal Mental Health and Inequality

Perinatal mental health problems, namely depression and anxiety, are the leading pregnancy complications. Untreated mental health problems disproportionately affect ethnic minority populations, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and individuals living in rural settings. Despite previous research, there is a need to describe inequality in the burden of perinatal mental health problems.

This Research Topic is focused on epidemiological, descriptive, exploratory and intervention studies that describe or demonstrate approaches to addressing inequality in perinatal mental health. Collectively these studies will report evidence on sociodemographic characteristics – race, place, ethnicity, education, or income – that drive inequalities in the burden of mental health problems during pregnancy and the postpartum period. 

We encourage high-quality Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed-Methods design, brief reports, commentaries and review papers that describe and report evidence on:

·      Perinatal Mental Health as it relates to Maternal Mortality and Morbidity

·      Perinatal mental health among or across racial/ethnic subgroups

·      Patient centered approaches to address inequality in perinatal mental health

·      Policy approaches to improve equity in perinatal mental health

·      Systems level or clinic approaches to address inequality in perinatal mental health

·      Complementary and integrative practices used in interventions, such as mindfulness, to achieve equity in perinatal mental health