Mothering Here and Mothering There: International Migration and Postbirth Mental Health
Table 1
Background characteristics for DC and non-DC mothers.
Dual-country mothers
Non-dual-country mother
value
Demographic
Mean [SD] maternal age (yr)
32.0 [5.3]
31.0 [5.3]
.000
Education < 12 yrs, %
65.9a
45.4b
.000
Household income < $10,000 CAD/yr, %
36.0c
18.6c
.001
Not living with a male partner, %
40.2
11.4
.000
Migration
Lived in Canada <2 years, %
52.2
50.0d
.706
Limited or no official language fluency (i.e., English or French) at 4-month home visit, %
32.6
40.3
.171
Mother’s region of birth by UN world macroregion
Africa, %
33.7
17.5
Asia, %
20.7
38.9
Europe and North America, %
2.2
8.1
.000
Latin America*, %
43.5
35.5
Migration status at time of recruitment
Asylum seeking, %
56.5
34.6
Accepted refugee, %
27.2
16.4
.000
Nonrefugee/family class, %
16.3
49.1
No health insurance at time of delivery, %
14.0d
9.6e
.177
Obstetrical
First contact with health care provider during pregnancy
First trimester, %
42.2d
60.2f
Second trimester, %
47.8
33.8
.008
Third trimester, %
10.0
6.1
Caesarean birth, %
32.6
39.6
.213
Psychosocial
Mother feels that she has no one to help her and/or no one who cares about her at 1-week postpartum, %
23.1a
12.2b
.007
Mother reports physical abuse in the last year (measured by the Abuse Assessment Screen), %
14.8g
5.2g
.003
Mother reports experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event (measured by Harvard Trauma Questionnaire), %
72.2d
49.8d
.000
Mother cutting or skipping meals due to lack of resources 1-week postpartum, % 4-month postpartum, %
15.2 16.3
7.8 7.6
.026 .009
aMissing data on one woman.
bMissing data on three women.
cMissing data ( and ) as mothers either did not know or did not want to disclose their household income.
dMissing data on two women.
eMissing data on seven women.
fMissing data on 28 women.
gThe abuse questionnaire was only administered if no male was present in the household to ensure the mother’s safety ( and ).
*Includes the Caribbean, Central and South Americas.
