We all know that woman in their pregnancy period will feel very emotionally unstable. They are hard to control their emotions because of the increased levels of the hormones progesterone and estrogen during pregnancy. This condition can cause mental health issues. Unfortunately, Mental health issue in Vietnam carries a high level of stigma and taboo. The paper I reviewed revealed how mental health‐related stigma influences pregnant women’s decisions not to disclose their conditions or to seek treatment in Vietnam. Moreover, this paper responds to the call for evidence on health system barriers to achieving health equity in underserved populations such as young women from low- and middle-income countries. Ultimately, this will enhance health systems' responsiveness to maternal mental health needs in Vietnam and other similar low-and middle-income countries. Approximately 15% of women in low-and middle-income countries experience common perinatal mental disorders (CPMDs) antenatally and 20% postnatally. CPMDs include depression, anxiety, and psychosis during pregnancy or in the first year of postpartum. Risk factors include a history of illness, significant life stressors, poor marital relationships, and poor social support. Many losses will occur amongst CPMDs not just in various aspects of the mother’s life but also to the obstetrics outcomes, such as preterm birth and low birth weight, preterm delivery, and economic outcomes, and have long-lasting consequences on the child’s brain development and birth weight, impairing growth and increasing infection susceptibility.
This examination reports the research by using Realist Evaluation which is a theory-driven methodological approach that focuses on understanding what works, how it works, under what conditions, and for whom it works. It analyses causal pathways through the context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOs). The data in this paper was collected by qualitative and quantitative methods. These two types of data-collecting methods are effective for presenting the results of the research. For the quantitative part, this analysis recruited all pregnant women who were above 12 weeks gestation. The pregnant woman was given a self-administrated questionnaire comprising basic demographic information and four items assessing attitudes towards mental health illness. The aim is to understand their views on maternal mental health and the resulting health-seeking behaviors. The qualitative data collection included face-to-face in-depth interviews, and focus-group discussions With pregnant women and community health workers to focus on understanding their views on mental health issues, their experiences, and the healthcare seeking by pregnant women. This examination revealed that nearly half of pregnant women (43.5%) would try to hide their mental health issues and 38.3% avoid having help from a mental health professional, highlighting the substantial extent of stigma affecting health-seeking and accessing care. The primary reason why pregnant women hide their mental illness is fear and scared of the stigmatizing language that contributes to the concealment of mental illness.
Based on this insightful paper, I can conclude that addressing mental health-related stigma could influence the decision of disclosure and health-seeking behaviors, which could in turn improve the responsiveness of the local health system to the needs of pregnant women with mental health needs, by offering prompt attention, a wide range of choices, and improved communication. Potential interventions to decrease stigma and improve access to mental healthcare for pregnant women in Vietnam should target structural and organizational levels and may include improvements in screening and referrals for perinatal mental care screening, thus preventing complications.
Journal reviewed by Triana Putri
