Research Project

Family structures and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders among low-income women in China and Rhode Island

Medical anthropologist Katherine Mason is conducting this multi-sited, ethnographic project examining family experiences of postpartum mood and anxiety disorders in Rhode Island and China, with a focus on low-income women and their families. The project includes longitudinal open-ended interviews with affected women and their families, as well as participant observation in the home during the postpartum period (first 3 months after the birth of a baby). For this project, Mason has trained as a postpartum doula and has worked with local clinicians in Providence, RI, and in Luzhou (Sichuan), China.