Postnatal Depression: The Role of 'Good Mother' Ideals and Maternal Shame in a Community Sample of Mothers in Australia

Contemporary literature confirms that “good mother” ideology dominates cultural discourses of motherhood in Australia, USA, United Kingdom, and Korea. Within this context, maternal shame refers to a domain-specific shame arising from negative evaluation of the maternal self-concept against socio-culturally derived ideals of motherhood. This study investigated whether incongruence between mothers’ maternal self-concept and “good mother” ideologies was associated with postnatal depression (PND) symptom severity in women up to 12 months postpartum, and whether these associations were explained by maternal shame. We hypothesised that a larger discrepancy between women’s maternal self-concept and both their own and sociocultural good mother ideals would be associated with more severe PND symptomology, and that these associations would be mediated by maternal shame. In this cross-sectional study, a community sample of 230 birth mothers with an infant aged 2 weeks to 12 months completed an online survey comprising established measures for the hypothesised variables, plus demographic, depression history, and partner support details. Mothers who experienced greater incongruence between their maternal self-concept and “good mother” ideals experienced more severe PND symptomology after controlling for partner support and previous depression. Maternal shame mediated these relationships. Findings suggest that good mother ideology may be implicated in mothers’ postnatal mental health.