These researchers explored how mother’s and partner’s experiences of lifetime and past year racial discrimination impact upon prenatal and postnatal mental health among Māori, Pacific, and Asian women in New Zealand. The study data consisted of material from the first two interviews conducted with 6,822 pregnant women from the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort; 4,401 pregnant mother’s partners also enrolled in the study poll. All lifetime experiences of unfair treatment were associated with increased perceived stress during pregnancy. Past year experiences of unfair treatment by a health professional and by the banking sector were associated with increased prenatal stress. Māori, Pacific, and Asian women who had ever experienced a physical attack because of their ethnicity were 86% more likely to suffer from prenatal depression than women who did not report experiencing a physical attack (OR 1.86; 95% CI, 1.13 to 3.06). Moreover, Māori, Pacific, and Asian women who reported unfair treatment in the housing sector during the past year were more than twice as likely to suffer from depressive symptoms during pregnancy than those who did not report experiencing such treatment (OR 2.10; 95% CI, 1.28 to 3.43). Postnatal depression among Māori, Pacific, and Asian women was detrimentally associated with lifetime experiences of unfair treatment by a health professional (OR 1.66; 95% CI, 1.08 to 2.55). Lifetime experiences of ethnically-motivated personal attacks and unfair treatment reported by both the mother and the partner were associated with a higher likelihood of reporting postnatal depression.
