Department of Sport and Physical Activity, Centre for Mental Health, Sport and Physical Activity Research, Edge Hill University, UK.
Department of Sport and Physical Activity, Centre for Mental Health, Sport and Physical Activity Research, Edge Hill University, UK.
Midwifery. 2024 Oct;137:104109. doi: 10.1016/j.midw.2024.104109. Epub 2024 Jul 9.
Physical activity is recommended as a self-help strategy for some mild to moderate perinatal mental illnesses. Despite this, we know very little about how women remain active, or take up physical activity, in the context of changing family life and perinatal mental illness. We seek to explore: a) how women negotiate physical activity for their mental health during transitions into parenthood and the early years; and b) the experiences of women with perinatal mental illness in relation to physical activity.
An anonymous UK-wide qualitative online survey was used to better understand how physical activity may be used for perinatal mental health, barriers to activity and changes over time. 186 women with babies and children up to four years completed the survey. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data and generate themes.
Themes generated from this data were: 1) negotiating being active for perinatal mental health (the benefits and how these women remained active); 2) barriers to PA associated with mental illness (some women were active but still experienced general barriers to further PA, and there were several emotional barriers from mental illness); and 3) PA, guilt and the importance of valuing walking (guilt about not being active enough, guilt and feelings of failure exacerbated by questions about PA levels without support offered; regular walking not valued as PA exacerbating feelings of guilt).
This study provides new empirical data on the experiences of new mothers', physical activity and mental health with important implications for physical activity messaging and support for women during this time through maternity care. Individualised conversations are important and the value of walking and incidental activity from activities that mothers and families find enjoyable should be promoted.
身体活动被推荐为一些轻度至中度围产期精神疾病的自助策略。尽管如此，我们对女性如何在家庭生活和围产期精神疾病变化的情况下保持活跃或开始身体活动知之甚少。我们旨在探讨：a）女性在过渡到为人父母和早年期间如何为心理健康而进行身体活动；b）围产期精神疾病女性与身体活动相关的经历。
采用匿名的英国全国性定性在线调查，以更好地了解身体活动如何用于围产期心理健康、活动障碍以及随时间的变化。186 名有婴儿和 4 岁以下儿童的女性完成了调查。采用反思性主题分析对定性数据进行分析并生成主题。
从这些数据中生成的主题包括：1）协商为围产期心理健康进行身体活动（好处以及这些女性如何保持活跃）；2）与精神疾病相关的 PA 障碍（一些女性活跃，但仍面临进一步 PA 的一般障碍，且有几种来自精神疾病的情绪障碍）；3）PA、内疚和重视步行的重要性（对不够活跃的内疚，因没有提供支持而对 PA 水平的问题感到内疚和失败感加剧；常规步行不被视为 PA，加剧内疚感）。
这项研究提供了新的关于新手妈妈的经验、身体活动和心理健康的实证数据，对围产期妇女通过产妇保健提供身体活动信息和支持具有重要意义。个性化对话很重要，应该促进母亲和家庭喜欢的活动中的步行和偶然活动的价值。
