Navigating Postpartum: Exploring Lived and Professional Perspectives to Inform Supportive Technology Design

Childbirth is a significant life transition involving physical recovery, emotional adjustment, and caring for a newborn. This period exposes parents to postpartum challenges, including emotional difficulties, social isolation, and overwhelming adjustments that can lead to depression or anxiety. Despite the prevalence of postpartum challenges, research and support systems remain insufficient. To explore how technology could address these challenges, we combined professional and lived perspectives. Through a mixed-methods approach with midwives, social workers, and affected parents, we conducted interviews (N=8), collected experience reports (N=52), and used these insights to inform four participatory workshops (N=15). By using zines, self-curated booklets - for expression and reflection, participants articulated challenges, ideal circumstances, and imagined support tools. We identified five challenge areas that technology should address through a Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). Our work contributes empirically grounded perspectives on postpartum challenges, design recommendations for supportive technologies, and considerations for designing technologies during challenging life transitions.