ArXiv Preprint
Digital platforms, including online forums and helplines, have emerged as
avenues of support for caregivers suffering from postpartum mental health
distress. Understanding support seekers' experiences as shared on these
platforms could provide crucial insight into caregivers' needs during this
vulnerable time. In the current work, we provide a descriptive analysis of the
concerns, psychological states, and motivations shared by healthy and
distressed postpartum support seekers on two digital platforms, a one-on-one
digital helpline and a publicly available online forum. Using a combination of
human annotations, dictionary models and unsupervised techniques, we find stark
differences between the experiences of distressed and healthy mothers.
Distressed mothers described interpersonal problems and a lack of support, with
8.60% - 14.56% reporting severe symptoms including suicidal ideation. In
contrast, the majority of healthy mothers described childcare issues, such as
questions about breastfeeding or sleeping, and reported no severe mental health
concerns. Across the two digital platforms, we found that distressed mothers
shared similar content. However, the patterns of speech and affect shared by
distressed mothers differed between the helpline vs. the online forum,
suggesting the design of these platforms may shape meaningful measures of their
support-seeking experiences. Our results provide new insight into the
experiences of caregivers suffering from postpartum mental health distress. We
conclude by discussing methodological considerations for understanding content
shared by support seekers and design considerations for the next generation of
support tools for postpartum parents.
Xuewen Yao, Miriam Mikhelson, Megan Micheletti, Eunsol Choi, S Craig Watkins, Edison Thomaz, Kaya De Barbaro
2022-12-22
