UC Irvine

Background. Black African immigrant mothers in the United States navigate postpartum recovery while adapting to unfamiliar cultural, social, and healthcare contexts. Acculturative stress, postpartum distress, maternal-infant bonding, and social support have each been examined in immigrant perinatal populations, but not together, and not in this group.Purpose. This study examined how Black African immigrant mothers understand and experience acculturative stress, postpartum distress, maternal-infant bonding, and social support.Methods. A qualitative design informed by hermeneutic phenomenology was used. Sixteen Black African immigrant mothers with a child aged 24 months or younger born in the United States completed semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, supported by reflexive and analytic memos.Results. Six themes were developed: navigating cultural adaptation and acculturative stress, discrimination and identity-linked othering, the erosion and reconfiguration of communal support, psychosocial distress and coping, maternal-infant bonding amid postpartum and acculturative demands, and the spectrum of social support experiences. Three findings organized these themes. First, acculturative stress operated as a multidimensional, contextual process in which discrimination was embedded while also exerting a distinct effect. Second, postpartum depression, in particular, and maternal-infant bonding were interconnected, with mothers actively working to sustain connection with their infants rather than experiencing bonding as a passive outcome. Third, social support was conditional: it was experienced as effective when it both fit mothers' functional needs and was culturally congruent with their current cultural frame.Conclusion. Postpartum distress and maternal-infant bonding among Black African immigrant mothers were embedded within broader social, cultural, and structural conditions rather than being isolated individual experiences. These findings expand our understanding of postpartum social support for immigrant mothers and highlight the need for perinatal research and care systems to go beyond simply assessing the presence of support toward ensuring that care is accessible, culturally informed, and responsive to each mother’s unique circumstances.