PhD candidate, Helenia Quince, has long been interested in maternal health and the bond between infants and caregivers. While combing through data from a research project with Milwaukee’s African American Breastfeeding Network, she realized that many Black women had experienced traumatic birthing events and losses, and that this might impact their mental health. She also came to realize that this issue had been neglected in prior research. As she explained, “I was really curious about how traumatic loss impacts future pregnancies and future attachment and whether or not symptoms of depression and anxiety influence that.”
Helenia discussed that one reason these issues have not been researched, is that people do not easily (or often?) talk about their experiences of traumatic birth, pregnancy loss, or loss of an infant. She explained that there is often stigma attached to these experiences and the effects of these losses are often ignored or dismissed.. As she described, “People are expected to just go on and we kind of minimize those experiences.” Further, she pointed out, the effects of traumatic loss are worsened by racial discrimination, which contributes to Black maternal and infant mortality as well as Black maternal health often being overlooked or ignored.
The results of Helenia’s research have been published in the Infant Mental Health Journal and indicate that traumatic loss can increase depressive symptoms in mothers, which can impact attachment with infants. She was careful to point out, however, that this is only one factor impacting attachment, and trauma does not necessarily have an overall negative impact on bonding. She explained that health care providers need to consider strengths of a person’s context as well, including community strengths and how people make meaning out of their loss. The research results also indicate that clinicians should routinely ask about traumatic loss using culturally responsive and trauma informed screening tools. Further, working to dismantle structural racism and racial discrimination is crucial to improving maternal and infant health and well-being.
Helenia described experiencing a lot of hope for the future of Black maternal health while working on this research and participating in the larger collaboration with the African American Breastfeeding Network. Funding for this project was provided by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program through a grant to the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. She said of this, “I think it left an impact on me because it was one of those moments where it was like people are really wanting to move forward, to break generational patterns, and be aware of maternal and paternal health.” Overall, she said that she hopes more people will consider context when providing maternal healthcare, especially to Black mothers whom she said, “get reduced down to one group of people even though there’s so many micro-cultures and different contexts.”As she described, the contextual landscape of structural racism might look different in various places and this needs to be considered.
In the future, she hopes that results of her research can be used to inform better policies and interventions and to advocate for increased funding for programs that specifically address maternal loss and other Black maternal health issues. She also plans to use her expertise to advocate for more community-based interventions and improve healthcare for all. Overall, she expressed her hope that service providers, policy makers, and people in general will pay more attention to how context shapes people’s experiences. As she stated, “I’m hoping that people will be more curious about voices that are marginalized, our experiences, and how we see and make meaning of the world.”