Navigating Postpartum: Exploring Lived and Professional Perspectives to Inform Supportive Technology Design

Paper Title

Navigating Postpartum: Exploring Lived and Professional Perspectives to Inform Supportive Technology Design

Publication Info

• Topic area: Postpartum challenges and technology design for supportive interventions.
• Keywords: Postpartum, mental health, participatory design, feminist HCI, digital health, Reflexive Thematic Analysis, zine-making, support networks, professional care, user-centered design.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Postpartum challenges, including depression, anxiety, and social isolation, are underrepresented in clinical practice and societal discourse. Existing technological interventions are limited in addressing the multifaceted social, emotional, and practical contexts of postpartum life.
• Significance: Postpartum mental health issues affect a significant percentage of new parents (10–17% of mothers, 8–10% of fathers) and can have long-term impacts on family well-being. Addressing these challenges is critical for improving mental health outcomes and support systems.
• Motivation and related work: Previous research has explored postpartum health, digital support tools, and barriers to adoption. However, existing technologies often fail to integrate lived experiences and systemic realities, focusing narrowly on specific problems rather than holistic support. This paper builds on feminist HCI principles to prioritize first-person accounts and community perspectives.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A mixed-methods investigation combining professional and lived perspectives to inform the design of supportive technologies for postpartum challenges. Methods included interviews, experience reports, and participatory workshops using zine-making.
• Novelty:
  1. Identification of five interconnected postpartum challenge areas: unmet expectations, professional support barriers, personal network limitations, (self-)compassion struggles, and partnership/father role challenges.
  2. Design recommendations for postpartum technologies based on co-design activities with affected individuals and professionals.
  3. Ethical and practical reflections on designing postpartum technologies, including privacy, agency, and avoiding technological overload.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 8 expert interviews with midwives, social workers, and psychologists.
  • Collected 52 online experience reports from parents across five countries.
  • Ran 4 participatory workshops (N=15) in Germany, integrating creative zine-making to explore challenges and envision ideal support systems.
  • Analyzed data using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) to identify themes and design implications.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Identified five key postpartum challenge areas: unmet expectations, barriers to professional support, limitations in personal networks, struggles with self-compassion, and partnership/father involvement challenges.
  • Emotional states reported included feelings of guilt (13%), shame (10%), anxiety (25%), and depression (6%).
  • Participants proposed technological solutions such as traffic-light systems for visitor management, automated bureaucracy assistance, and guided self-assessment tools.
• Advantage over baselines: The study integrates lived experiences and professional insights, offering a more holistic understanding of postpartum challenges compared to prior work focused narrowly on medical or technological interventions.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Mixed-methods approach: 8 expert interviews, 52 online experience reports, and 4 participatory workshops.
  • Workshops used zine-making to enable nuanced emotional expression and collaborative design.
  • Reflexive Thematic Analysis was employed to synthesize findings into actionable themes and recommendations.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited cultural and demographic diversity in the sample (predominantly white, educated women from Western countries).
  • Underrepresentation of fathers and partners in the study (only one male participant).
  • Potential influence of professionals on participant disclosures during workshops.
  • Future work should explore non-screen-based interventions and address intersectional barriers in diverse cultural contexts.

Summary

This study investigates how digital technologies can support parents during the postpartum period by integrating lived experiences and professional insights. Through interviews, experience reports, and participatory workshops, the authors identified five key postpartum challenges and proposed design recommendations for supportive technologies. These include addressing unmet expectations, reducing bureaucratic barriers, facilitating dignified support-seeking, and creating inclusive environments for mothers and fathers. The findings emphasize the need for privacy, user agency, and contextually sensitive designs. This work contributes to a more holistic understanding of postpartum challenges and offers actionable insights for designing equitable and effective support systems.