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Postpartum Mental Health P4

  • annekonkle6
  • Oct 18
  • 10 min read

Series: Beyond the Baby Blues: A Postpartum Mental Health Series


Intro to series:


At BESST Transitions, we explore the turning points that shape health and wellbeing. Few transitions are as profound as the shift into parenthood.  This post is part of Beyond the Baby Blues: A Postpartum Mental Health Series, which explores the emotional realities of the “fourth trimester.” This is a time of immense physical, emotional, and social change. In this series on postpartum mental health, we’ll follow this journey through its many layers: from the early adjustment beyond the baby blues, to the realities of anxiety and depression, to strategies for support and advocacy. Each post is an invitation to recognize the challenges of this transition, and to imagine more supportive pathways forward. Two other series will follow.  These will explore postpartum mental health across the lifespan and postpartum mental health in marginalized communities.


Posts in this Series:


  1. Postpartum Mental Health: Beyond the Baby Blues

  2. Postpartum Anxiety: The Silent Partner of New Motherhood

  3. Postpartum Depression: Understanding the Shadows Beyond the Smile

  4. Partners & Family: The Ripple Effects of Postpartum Mental Health

  5. Self-Care and Coping Strategies for New Parents

  6. Navigating Professional Support: From Pregnancy to Postpartum as a First-Time Parent

  7. From Advocacy to Action: Canada Joins the Global Push for Perinatal Mental Health


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Partners & Family: The Ripple Effects of Postpartum Mental Health

 


When we talk about postpartum mental health, our attention often focuses on mothers, understandably so. Pregnancy and birth involve profound physiological changes, emotional upheaval, and the need for recovery, which can make postpartum depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders a serious concern. Yet, even in Canada, national policy to address maternal mental health was only approved as recently as November 2024, reminding us how much work remains. If the mother’s well-being is still treated as a new frontier, why should we be thinking about partners, too? The answer is simple: because family health is interconnected. The mental health of one parent reverberates through the other, and together, they shape the environment in which a newborn will grow. Ignoring the partner means missing half the story, and half the potential for strengthening family well-being.


Increasing research shows that 10-15% of partners experience postpartum depression (Paulson and Bazemore, 2010; Cameron et al., 2016), and anxiety may be even more common, though this appears to vary during the perinatal period (Leach et al., 2016). The mental health of partners is not just an individual issue; it has ripple effects throughout the family system.

 

Why Partner Mental Health Matters


Several frameworks help us understand why we should be concerned about partners’ well-being after birth:


Biopsychosocial Perspective

Partners face overlapping biological, psychological, and social stressors. Sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, identity shifts, and financial strain interact to create vulnerability (Philpott et al., 2017; Da Costa et al., 2019; Ansari et al., 2021; Kalogeropoulos et al., 2021).


Family Systems Theory

Families function as interconnected systems (Cox and Paley, 1997). A partner’s struggles with depression or anxiety can heighten stress for the birthing parent, strain co-parenting, and shape the child’s early emotional environment (Ramchandani and Psychogiou,1997; Goodman, 2004).


Stress-Diathesis Model

Some partners bring preexisting vulnerabilities such as a history of anxiety or depression, that interact with the intense stress of newborn care, sleep disruption, and isolation, leading to symptoms (Ansari et al., 2021; Chhabra et al., 2022).


Social Determinants of Health: Race, Culture, Context, and Identity

Partners’ mental health is shaped by cultural expectations and structural inequities (Goyal et al., 2024; Clement et al., 2025), including for those in same-sex relationships. For example, in some cultures men are expected to remain stoic or prioritize financial provision, making emotional distress and help-seeking harder to express (Mokhwelepa and Sumbane, 2025). Racialized partners may face systemic discrimination and reduced access to culturally responsive care, while immigrant families may encounter language barriers, limited local support, and differing cultural practices around childbirth (Mohammadifirouzeh et al. 2023). Furthermore, partners in sexual-minority relationships often navigate additional barriers: discrimination, fear of disclosure, and healthcare systems not designed with their family-type (Dahlhamer et al., 2016; Baptiste-Roberts et al., 2017; Yinger et al., 2024), which reduce help-seeking and complicate access to perinatal supports (Greenfield and Darwin, 2023). These factors intersect with socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and other social determinants to influence risk and resilience.

 

The Weight of “Strength”: Gender Expectations and Partner Mental Health


In many cultures, men are socialized to equate strength with emotional restraint. The expectation to “be the rock” for their partner often leaves little room to express fear, exhaustion, or sadness. This “strong male” ideal can make it difficult for partners to acknowledge their own struggles, much less seek support. Research shows that men who internalize traditional masculine norms are less likely to access mental health care, even when experiencing significant distress (Mokhwelepa 2025; Üzümçeker 2025). Yet emotional openness and help-seeking are not signs of weakness; they are acts of responsibility that strengthen families. Recognizing and challenging these gendered expectations is key to fostering a culture where all partners can access the care they need without stigma (Üzümçeker 2025).

 

Finding Their Place: Role Uncertainty and Early Bonding


For many partners, the postpartum period brings an unspoken question: What is my role now? Amidst the focus on the birthing parent’s recovery and the baby’s immediate needs, partners may feel unsure of how to contribute or when to step in. Some worry about interrupting the mother-infant bond, while others feel sidelined by hospital routines or social expectations that position them as “helpers” rather than parents. This uncertainty can quietly erode confidence and connection. Encouraging shared caregiving, such as skin-to-skin contact, feeding, diapering, or nighttime soothing, supports bonding and reduces anxiety for both partners. When partners are actively engaged, they don’t just strengthen their own relationship with the baby, they also ease the load on mothers and foster a sense of teamwork that benefits the entire family (d’Orsi et al., 2023).

 

When Presence Isn’t Possible: Partner During the Pandemic


The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how fragile partner involvement in birth and early parenting can be. Hospitals across Canada and globally restricted or even prohibited partners from being present during labour and delivery.


A close friend of mine experienced this firsthand. He sat in his car in the hospital parking lot, speaking to his wife and hospital staff by phone as she gave birth to their first, and likely only, child. He was unable to offer in-person comfort during labour, and he missed being in-person for the moment of his child’s arrival.


Though, given his line of work, he understood that the measures were meant to protect the collective good, the psychological toll of such separation can still be profound. Partners in these situations often report feelings of helplessness, grief, and trauma. Exclusion from the birthing room not only robs them of a once-in-a-lifetime experience but can disrupt early bonding with both parent and baby. These challenges may contribute to depression, anxiety, or longer-term distress, effects that ripple outward to affect the entire family system (Andrews et al., 2022; Fonseca et al., 2023).


And this was not an isolated story. Many families endured similar experiences during the pandemic, which underscores how systems-level decisions, while made to protect public health, can have unintended consequences for partner mental health.

 

Common Challenges for Partners


Beyond pandemic-specific disruptions, partners may face:


  • Postpartum depression and anxiety

  • Adjustment disorders or stress reactions

  • Sleep-related difficulties

  • Relationship strain

  • Feelings of isolation or inadequacy

 

Changes in Intimacy and Couple Connection


The transition to parenthood can also bring profound changes in intimacy. Fatigue, physical recovery, shifting priorities, and new emotional demands can all strain the couple’s connection. While many partners expect a temporary lull in closeness, the emotional distance that sometimes follows can be disorienting. For partners already coping with anxiety or low mood, the loss of intimacy can reinforce feelings of rejection or inadequacy. Open communication and mutual understanding during this phase are crucial, not to rush the return of physical closeness, but to preserve the emotional bond that anchors both parents through the challenges of early parenting.

 

A Personal Reflection: What We Lived


These broader challenges were not abstract to me; they were things my own family navigated in real time.


On a personal note, I was mindful of the importance of partner well-being in my own family. After the birth of our son, I encouraged my husband to continue his time to decompress once a week. As a drummer, he would meet up with his band to jam, an outlet he had always valued. He’d come home for dinner after work, stay until my stepdaughter was ready for bed, and then head out. Yet even while he was away, he often texted to check in on us. It became clear that while the outlet mattered, his priorities had shifted - what he wanted most was to be with his family. That tension between caring for oneself and staying close to one’s newborn is one with which many partners quietly wrestle. This reminded me that while outlets for decompression are important, true support for partners must also acknowledge the shifting priorities and emotional pull of new parenthood.


In many ways, our experience echoed what others were expressing publicly: an ongoing search for balance, understanding, and recognition.

 

Awareness and Representation


In my own research group, we’ve explored how postnatal depression is represented on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (now X). This work, led by my undergraduate student (at the time) Jason Taylor-Horsfall (2019), analyzed hundreds of public posts and discussions. What emerged most strongly was a shared call for awareness, people expressing how often postpartum mental health struggles go unrecognized or minimized. The message was clear: awareness remains the first step toward compassion, support, and systemic change.

 

Supporting Partners Across Canada


National Resources


 

Provincial Examples


 

Navigating Support


Partners can reach out to local public health units or hospitals, connect with national organizations like PSI-CAN, or use online directories to find perinatal mental health professionals familiar with partner challenges.

 

Conclusion: The Ripple Effect


Postnatal mental health is not just a maternal issue; it is a family issue. Partners experience unique physiological, psychological, and social pressures, and their well-being has ripple effects across the household. COVID-19 reminded us that when partners are excluded or unsupported, the impact is felt not only by them, but by mothers and children as well.

By recognizing these challenges, embedding cultural and social contexts into care, and ensuring access to inclusive supports, we can build stronger, healthier families. When partners are supported, the whole family thrives.


Caring for each parent is essential…supporting partners should never be an afterthought.

 

 -- Anne TM Konkle, PhD

 




References


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