Southeast and East Asian immigrant women's transnational postpartum experiences: A meta-ethnography

Abstract

The increase in births to Southeast and East Asian (SEEA) immigrants in their adopted countries is of international importance. SEEA women experience the postpartum period differently than that of the general population. Despite the documented difference, there is limited representation of SEEA women in the literature. The purpose of this meta-ethnography is to synthesise the qualitative findings from different research studies examining the experiences of SEEA immigrant women during the first 4-6 weeks of the postpartum period and has been written in adherence with enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (PRISMA). Noblit and Hare's meta-ethnographic approach was used. Seven articles (four qualitative and three mixed-methods studies) were reviewed, analysed and synthesised. Four themes emerged: two were facilitators of birth culture (availability and quality of social support and maternity care provider cultural knowledge and response) and two were barriers to birth culture (lack of structural and social support and cultural alienation after childbirth). Due to lack of structural and social support in SEEA immigrant women's adopted countries, they also experienced social and economic hardships after childbirth and made conscious decisions to modify their postpartum cultural practices out of convenience and practicality. SEEA immigrant women also experienced discrimination from maternity care providers, which prevented them from fully engaging in postpartum cultural practices. Maternity care providers can advocate and intervene for SEEA immigrant women by eliciting any postpartum cultural beliefs, assess their social and economic needs early on in prenatal care and make culturally congruent referrals based on those assessments.

Keywords: Southeast and East Asian; cultural alienation; cultural sensitivity; immigrants; meta-ethnography; postpartum cultural practices; postpartum period; systematic review; transnationalism; women.