Memory and mood changes in pregnancy: a qualitative content analysis of women’s first-hand accounts

Objective: This qualitative study aimed to explore how pregnant women and new mothers self-report changes to their mood and memory during pregnancy.

Background: Researchers have investigated the various changes that women report throughout their pregnancy. Despite this evidence base, there is a notable lack of studies that take a qualitative approach to understanding how pregnant women and women in the postpartum period experience memory and mood changes through their pregnancy.

Method: The present study involved a qualitative content analysis of women’s first-hand accounts. Of the 423 participants who responded, 118 participants provided textual responses to questions about their memory and 288 participants provided textual responses to questions about their mood. Data were collected online via a free-text survey and analysed using both deductive inductive open coding.

Results: A qualitative content analysis generated four overall categories: two typologies of self-reported memory changes in pregnancy (‘short-term memory lapses’ and ‘chronic memory fog’) and two typologies of self-reported mood changes (‘mood instability and constant change’ and ‘low mood and parenting anxiety’).

Conclusion: These typologies represent unique profiles of the memory and mood changes that women experience during pregnancy and serve to accompany and expand the quantitative literature, which documents the changes women experience during pregnancy.