Andipatin, MichelleSingh, Robyn2018-09-042024-04-192018-12-312024-04-192018https://hdl.handle.net/10566/12184Magister Artium - MA (Psychology)Psychological distress during pregnancy has been a fairly neglected phenomenon and has only recently started emerging as an area of research interest. The existing body of scholarship on distress during pregnancy has largely been conducted from a positivist paradigm, emphasising the identification, incidences and risks. There is thus a dearth of qualitative inquiry into pregnant women's experiences and accounts of distress. In an attempt to address these gaps within the literature, my study explored psychological distress among a group of pregnant women from socio-economically disadvantaged contexts. The specific objectives of my study was to explore how pregnant women conceptualised psychological distress within the context of pregnancy; the feelings or symptoms of psychological distress; what pregnant women perceived as its causes; and the psychosocial needs of pregnant women in relation to antenatal distress. This study was guided by a feminist approach and a feminist standpoint epistemology in particular. This lent itself to exploring the phenomenon while departing from a clinical, decontextualised position which translated into an investigation with pregnant women who subjectively perceived themselves to be distressed.enpsychological distress during pregnancy, antenatal psychological distress, perinatal distress, maternal distress, maternal mental health, self-reported distress, qualitative methodology, feminist standpoint epistemologyUniversity of the Western Cape