Understanding the lived experiences of severe postnatal psychiatric illnesses in English speaking South Asian women, living in the UK: a qualitative study protocol.

Introduction: The South Asian population is the UK's largest and fastest growing minority ethnic group. There is evidence to suggest the lay understanding of postnatal psychiatric illnesses of this group may fall outside the purview of Western biomedical perspectives. Alternative explanations include psychosocial, cultural and spiritual factors.

Affect recognition and the quality of mother-infant interaction: understanding parenting difficulties in mothers with schizophrenia.

This study investigated the quality of mother-infant interaction and maternal ability to recognise adult affect in three study groups consisting of mothers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, mothers with depression and healthy controls. Sixty-four mothers were recruited from a Mother and Baby Unit and local children's centres. A 5-min mother-infant interaction was coded on a number of caregiving variables.