Using Critical Ethnography to Explore Issues Among Immigrant and Refugee Women Seeking Help for Postpartum Depression

Critical ethnography was used as a pragmatic research methodology to explore the postpartum depression (PPD) experiences of immigrant and refugee women. We examined the social, political, economic, and historical factors that affected the help-seeking behavior of these women during PPD episodes. The critical ethnography method allowed participants to share their experiences with each other and afforded opportunities to the researchers to acknowledge and validate, rather than simply observe and record, their testimony. This study of PPD thus increased our awareness and understanding of the health issues of immigrant and refugee women.