South Asian and East Asian Immigrant Pregnant women in Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand: Prevalence of common mental health conditions and women’s lived experience with them

Abstract

The goal of this review is to investigate the prevalence rates of common mental health conditions among pregnant East and South Asian immigrant women, as well as to understand their lived experiences with these conditions in 5 English-speaking countries: Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, New Zealand. Pregnancy is a critical time in a woman's life marked by intricate physical, emotional, and psychological transitions. The mental health of pregnant women emerges as a paramount concern given its associations with poor pregnancy outcomes. This is crucial within the context of South Asian and East Asian immigrant women, who navigate unique cultural, social, and economic challenges in their host countries that may influence their emotional wellbeing. This review will investigate the prevalence rates of common mental health conditions. This review will also explore their encounters with mental health care services and interactions with perinatal mental health care providers and services. Quantitative and Qualitative studies in English language that examine East and/or South Asian immigrant women in the perinatal period will be considered for this review. Published abstracts and mixed methods studies will also be included. All languages and publication dates will be included. However, only studies with an English language translation will be considered. This review will exclude books/book chapters, editorials, commentaries, and reviews. CINAHL (EBSCO), MEDLINE ALL will be searched. Furthermore, a grey literature search will be included in the search using CINAHL and PsycINFO as well as websites such as Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC), Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System (CPSS), Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative (CPMHC), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Canadian Pediatric Society. Screening, conflict resolution data extraction and aggregation will be done by two independent reviewers.