New mothers in Western societies report being influenced by ideologies which suggest mothering comes naturally to women and is joyful and fulfilling. However, research reveals motherhood-related negative thoughts are common even among non-depressed new mothers, and it has been suggested experiencing such thoughts may be related to guilt and shame. This study updates and extends Hall and Wittkowski’s (2006) prevalence survey of motherhood-related negative thoughts by assessing new mothers’ perceptions of the social acceptability of negative thoughts, and by exploring relationships with guilt, shame and psychological distress. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A self-selected sample of non-clinical new mothers (N = 395) from the United Kingdom and Ireland completed online questionnaires including measures of the frequency and social acceptability of motherhood-related negative thoughts, shame and guilt proneness, depression and motherhood experience. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore relationships between variables. The frequency of negative thoughts was much higher than reported by Hall and Wittkowski. After controlling for demographic variables and social support, frequency of negative thoughts significantly predicted shame and guilt, whereas social acceptability of negative thoughts significantly predicted guilt. Negative thoughts, shame, guilt and motherhood experience relative to expectations significantly predicted depression score. These results suggest that negative thoughts are more common in early motherhood than previously reported, are considered socially unacceptable, and are related to guilt, shame and depression scores. The findings increase our understanding of postnatal distress in non-clinical populations. Future research should explore information and/or interventions aimed at “normalising” negative thoughts in early motherhood.

西方社会的新妈妈报告说受到意识形态的影响，这些意识形态表明母亲对女性来说是天生的，并且是快乐和充实的。然而，研究表明，即使在没有抑郁的新妈妈中，与母性相关的负面想法也很常见，并且有人认为，经历这些想法可能与内疚和羞耻有关。本研究更新并扩展了 Hall 和 Wittkowski (2006) 对与母性相关的负面想法的普遍调查，通过评估新妈妈对负面想法的社会可接受性的看法，以及探索与内疚、羞耻和心理困扰的关系。使用了横断面调查设计。非临床新妈妈自选样本（N = 395) 来自英国和爱尔兰的人完成了在线问卷，包括测量与母性相关的消极想法、羞耻和内疚倾向、抑郁和母性经历的频率和社会可接受性。分层回归分析用于探索变量之间的关系。消极想法的频率比霍尔和维特科夫斯基报告的要高得多。在控制人口变量和社会支持后，消极思想的频率显着预测了羞耻和内疚，而消极思想的社会可接受性显着预测了内疚。与期望相关的负面想法、羞耻、内疚和母性经历显着预测了抑郁评分。这些结果表明，在母亲早期，消极想法比以前报道的更常见，被认为是社会不可接受的，并且与内疚、羞耻和抑郁分数有关。这些发现增加了我们对非临床人群产后痛苦的理解。未来的研究应该探索旨在“正常化”母亲早期负面想法的信息和/或干预措施。