Exploring potential factors influencing perinatal mental health in Kajiado County, Kenya: a qualitative study with mothers and healthcare workers
Caren Kamau, Sebastian Gabrielsson, Francis W Makokha, Timothy Ntinina, Jane Karimi, Lydia Munteiyan, Kristian Ekman, Louise Öhlund, Ursula Werneke · 2026
Read Exploring potential factors influencing perinatal mental health in Kajiado County, Kenya: a qualitative study with mothers and healthcare workers by Caren Kamau, Sebastian Gabrielsson, Francis W Makokha, Timothy Ntinina, Jane Karimi, Lydia Munteiyan, Kristian Ekman, Louise Öhlund, Ursula Werneke (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13292506.txt.
Description
Caren Kamau and co-authors listen to a 2026 qualitative study of mothers and health workers in Kajiado County, Kenya, on what shapes mental health around pregnancy and birth. Perinatal depression may affect up to 30 percent of Kenyan women. Focus groups at five facilities, two urban and three rural, gathered 51 mothers and 39 health workers in March 2025.
Three themes emerged. First, mothers lacked control over money and decisions while carrying most household burdens, with early marriage and female genital mutilation leaving girls unready for motherhood. Second, distance, cost, and low expectations thinned care, and women feared traumatic births and caesarean sections. Third, communities often read mental illness as irrationality or spirit possession, delaying help, with stigma also shadowing caesareans and HIV. The authors tie maternal wellbeing tightly to gender norms.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Caren Kamau, Sebastian Gabrielsson, Francis W Makokha, Timothy Ntinina, Jane Karimi, Lydia Munteiyan, Kristian Ekman, Louise Öhlund, Ursula Werneke |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47470 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |