Quick summary: Political instability, financial pressures and concerns about healthcare can add to stress during pregnancy, potentially affecting maternal and fetal health and well-being. The findings show that Filipino women use cultural resilience, family support and deliberate disengagement from political stress to manage uncertainty, suggesting that healthcare professionals should consider wider social and political pressures when supporting expectant mothers. The researchers say future work should examine how these coping strategies affect stress biology and newborn health, with implications for maternal healthcare and public policy.
Pregnant women in the Philippines have been quietly carrying the weight of political turmoil, financial hardship and a fraught public health system, according to a new study exploring how sociopolitical stress becomes embodied during pregnancy. Researchers found that fear and uncertainty tied to the wider political climate can seep into women’s daily lives, shaping how they think, feel and even plan for their unborn children.
The study, published in Social Science & Medicine, interviewed 21 pregnant and recently pregnant Filipina women from across the Philippines. Interviews took place during a period marked by the aftermath of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial war on drugs and the ongoing disruption of the Covid pandemic.
Kristine Joy Chua, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the researchers were motivated by growing global instability and limited understanding of its effects on maternal and foetal health.
“Global unrest and instability were increasing, yet we knew very little about how a changing sociopolitical environment could affect maternal and fetal health. Studies in the United States were finding associations between heightened sociopolitical stress and adverse outcomes, including increased rates of preterm birth.”
Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, the University of California and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health wanted to understand how women perceive and manage sociopolitical stress while pregnant. They found that everyday concerns such as financial pressure and access to quality medical care were closely tangled up with broader political anxieties, including corruption scandals within the national health insurance scheme, PhilHealth.
Media consumption emerged as a key driver of stress. Women who followed political news closely, particularly on social media platforms like Facebook, reported higher levels of worry about the future and greater concern for their pregnancies. Many admitted to feeling caught between wanting to stay informed and needing to protect their mental health during a vulnerable time.
Chua said the findings also revealed that women were not simply overwhelmed by these pressures.
“While we found that they were indeed affected by the sociopolitical environment, we also found evidence of their resilience and the ways they were able to cope with that stress.”
Despite these pressures, the women in the study were far from passive. Researchers identified two main coping strategies that helped participants manage the psychological toll of political unrest. The first involved reframing stress through community comparison, humour and family support, allowing women to create emotional distance from distressing news. The second strategy centred on what researchers called political apathy, though this was framed as an active rather than passive response.
This included deliberately disengaging from the news, staying silent during political discussions and adopting the Filipino cultural concept of bahala na, often translated as “whatever happens, happens.” Rather than reflecting resignation, this mindset appeared to help women build resilience and maintain a sense of control during an unpredictable period.
“Resilience and agency are deeply embedded in Filipino cultural practices, shaping how expectant mothers navigate uncertainty during pregnancy. We conducted one of the first studies in the Philippines to examine these concepts and found that pregnant women drew on these values to cope with political stress.”
The findings also highlighted the complicated role of family. While relatives often provided vital emotional support, some participants described family dynamics as a source of stress in their own right, particularly when traditional expectations clashed with their wishes for their pregnancy and their child’s future.
“Some reframed difficult circumstances and maintained a positive outlook, while others intentionally disengaged from political stressors and focused on their families’ well-being.”
The researchers noted that their sample was largely made up of women from middle income households, meaning the experiences of poorer or more marginalised communities may differ significantly. They called for further research into how sociopolitical stress affects maternal health across different social classes and cultural contexts, both in the Philippines and beyond.
Chua said the research will next explore the biological consequences of these coping strategies.
“We plan to examine how these coping strategies affect stress biology during pregnancy and its impact on newborn health.”
The study adds to a growing body of evidence linking political and social instability to maternal and foetal health outcomes, underscoring how deeply personal circumstances and national politics can become intertwined during pregnancy.
