MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH AND LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

The reproductive years of women, largely coincide with their period of active engagement in the labour market, thereby affecting their Labour Market Outcomes (LMOs). Nigeria, in recent times, witnessed decline in female labour force participation from about 57% in 2011 to 44% in 2020. A major reason for the observed trend is the rise in maternal mental illness, especially during the postpartum period. Earlier studies laid emphasis on either maternal mental health or female LMOs separately without focusing on their interdependence. This study, therefore, investigated the determinants of maternal mental health and its effects on LMOs of women in Ibadan.

The Neo-Classical Labour Supply Theory provided the framework. The incidence and severity of Postpartum Depression (PPD), which served as a proxy for maternal mental health, was computed using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). The EPDS ranges between a minimum value of 0 to a maximum of 30 points. Employment status, number of hours worked and earnings were the measures of LMOs. The choice of Ibadan is due to it being the capital city of Oyo State; the State with one of the highest postnatal checkup of all the states in the country. Data for the study was obtained using a three-stage sampling technique. The first stage employed stratified sampling to disaggregate the health facilities offering postnatal and immunisation services, into public and private healthcare providers. In the second stage, seven (three private and four public) healthcare facilities were purposively selected based on the extent of patronage. The third stage was a random selection of 390 out of 795 women. The poisson and ordered logistic regressions were employed to estimate the determinants of the incidence and severity of PPD models. For the LMOs, the probability of a woman being employed was estimated using probit regression technique, while the number of hours worked and earnings of women were estimated using Ordinary Least Squares. The regression estimates were validated at ≤0.05.

Women who were unmarried (=0.18), unemployed ( and from polygamous homes (=0.17) were more likely to experience PPD. Also, women who experienced intimate partner violence (, did not have the desired gender of child (and those with a family mental illness history of PPD (also experienced depression in the postpartum period. The severity of PPD in mothers was significantly determined by having an unemployed spouse (=0.98) and female babies. For LMOs, severity rather than incidence of PPD reduced the probability of the woman being employed (=0.89); however, both incidence and severity had no significant effect on number of hours worked, as well as the earnings of the women. This implies that while severe mental illness inhibits employment opportunities for the women, employers placed less emphasis on their on-the-job mental health status.

Severity, rather than incidence of postpartum depression, reduced the likelihood of female employability. Employers of labour, should therefore, pay more attention to the mental health status of women. Government, at all levels, should prioritise treatment of postpartum depression towards increasing the likelihood of women employment.