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Mental health challenges and mental illness are one of the most common complications in pregnancy. In Canada, 23% of women experience maternal mental health disorders, with Black, Indigenous and other racialized people accounting for 40% of reported cases. Black women experience heightened risks of perinatal and postnatal mood and anxiety disorders, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder and more infrequently psychosis.. Although many of these disorders are treatable, only 15% of those who experience symptoms of anxiety and depression receive the appropriate care they require, and the rates are lower for historically disenfranchised groups.

Perinatal mental health issues cannot be disentangled from the broader social, economic, and structural contexts in which birthing people live, play and worship. Structural determinants such as racism, poverty, housing insecurity, immigration status, fragmented referral pathways, and policy neglect undermine perinatal mental health and black birthing peoples’ access to perinatal mental healthcare programs and services. Further, interpersonal dynamics, such as racist assumptions and microaggressions from providers, lack of social support and community belonging, low mental health literacy, religious or cultural beliefs that downplay secular help-seeking, and societal expectations of parenthood and Black women’s strength, can also significantly influence BBP’s perinatal mental health outcomes and help- seeking patterns

The goal of this study is to strengthen perinatal mental health services for Black birthing people by developing culturally informed, evidenced based resources that translate into culturally responsive community mental health programs and public policy. More specifically, the project will engage ACB communities and multiple stakeholders­, including Black birthing people, healthcare professionals, perinatal service providers and educators to generate Canadian race-based data on perinatal mental health. This data will help increase awareness of the structural determinants impacting Black birthing people’s mental health and their access to mental healthcare. Stakeholder insights will guide the development of our perinatal education module and online webinars, which will be shared with community health clinics, fertility centres and faith-based organizations to increase their local capacity and improve the delivery of responsive perinatal mental health supports for African, Caribbean and Black communities.

Partners

• AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO)
• Canadians of African Descent Health Organization (CADHO)
• Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program (CMNRP)
• Ottawa Black Mental Health Coalition (OBMHC)
• Ottawa Public Health (OPH)
• Toronto Metropolitan University Midwifery Education Program, Faculty of Community Services
• Women of Color Leadership Network (CWCLN):Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice

Etowa, J. (NPI), Sraha-Yeboah, M. (Co-PI), Wilson-Mitchell, K. (Collaborator)

Dr. Josephine Etowa

2025, 2026

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