Beyond health-related stress, sociopolitical stressors and uncertainties about the future economic, social, and political landscape around the world can cause fear and anxiety in pregnant women, leading to complications such as preterm birth. A new study led by Kristine Joy Chua, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, examines how expectant mothers in the Philippines cope with these stressors through cultural practices and community-centered support.
“Maternal and fetal health is influenced not only by medical care but also by the broader social and political environment,” said Dr. Chua. “And politics definitely plays a significant role in shaping perinatal health.”
For their study, Dr. Chua and her co-authors conducted focus group interviews with Filipina women in 2021. The research team chose to study pregnant women in the Philippines due to a number of factors such as the country’s high levels of state violence, poverty rates, and political corruption.
Among the study participants, two-thirds reported financial stress, 38 percent reported concerns with their access to quality medical care, and 52 percent reported cultural pressures that impacted their well-being. Notably, 62 percent of participants said social media is their primary source of information, which has a significant impact on their stress.
Despite the prevalence of these stressors, the participating women reported multiple coping strategies to mitigate them. In the interviews, two key coping strategies emerged. The most notable strategy was the participants’ ability to reframe stressors, which includes comparing themselves to others who may be worse off, using humor to build resilience, and connecting with family members. Another strategy to combat sociopolitical stress related to political apathy. Participants often invoked the mentality of bahala na, which is commonly translated as “whatever happens, happens.”
While this study focused on Filipina women, Dr. Chua and her co-authors suggest their findings could be extended to any mother experiencing sociopolitical stressors. They encourage future research to examine how these coping strategies affect the biological outcomes of mothers and newborns.
Dr. Chua joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2025 after serving as a postdoctoral fellow in anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her bachelor’s degree in psycho-biology and her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Chua completed her master’s degree in psychology at Oklahoma State University.
In addition to Dr. Chua, the study included authors from the University of California, Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.