Hope is defined as a positive and motivational experience for individuals to achieve their goals with cognitive interaction between pathways and agency thinking (Snyder, 1991). Pathways describes the ability to find various ways to achieve goals, and agency, the believe to achieve one's goal.

For expectant mothers, group hope therapy yielded significant effects on both mental health and relieving labour pain (Samavi, Najarpourian & Javdan, 2018) with increased mother-foetus attachment during pregnancy too (Noroozi, Gholami & Mohebbi-dehnavi, 2020). Hopeful experiences included the ability to belief in improvement of harsh situations and adapting to changes while hopelessness reflected emotional distresses and constant anxiety and depression (Antunes, Viana & Charepe, 2022)

In Malaysia, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms among 911 expectant mothers were 28.8% (Nasreen et al., 2018). Risk factors in a Malaysian sample included history of mental illness, depressive comorbidity (Fadzil et al., 2013); living conditions (shared living with parents/ in-laws), relationship with spouse or restrictions during pregnancy (Nasreen et al., 2018)

In Malaysia, the prevalence of depressive symptoms among 911 expectant mothers were 12.2% (Nasreen et al., 2018). Affects temperament, risk of premature delivery, or mother-child attachment (Nasreen et al., 2018). Statistics are higher in lower and middle income countries due to economic disadvantages, lack of support structures, and limited access to healthcare (Satyanarayana et al., 2021).

Emotional regulation were found to be significant for optimum maternal mental health (McDonald, Sherman and Kasparian, 2021).The period of change and demands required of the pregnancy journey affects emotional well-being of mothers as well as infant’s well-being (Corno et al., 2017).

Meta-analysis of quantitative studies (Pinquart and Teubert, 2010) and meta-synthesis of qualitative literatures (Entsieh and Hallström, 2016) found that the common elements observed in parenthood interventions are partner involvement, providing specific interventions to meet the needs of both mothers and fathers, increased provision of practical parenting information such as coping skills, and positive interactions with partner and child early on in their journey as expectant parents. Parenting-focused interventions were found to be effective and has been encouraged by evidence to be more accessible to expectant and new parents (Pinquart and Teubert, 2010).

Previous studies in a Malaysian setting informing similar issues include understanding women’s management of postnatal depression and help seeking behavior (Arifin, Cheyne, Maxwell and Yousuf, 2021), prevalence of psychological well-being symptoms such as anxiety, stress, and postpartum depression in mothers (Zainal, et.al., 2012; Nagandla, et. al., 2016; Mohammad Redzuan, et. al., 2020) and publications on involvement of fathers and their well-being during pregnancy or/and postpartum (Ahmad, et. at., 2016 and Hashima et. al., 2018). From here, it was clear that while there were vital clinical data to inform similar problem statements, as of time of write-up, there was no investigation done within behavioral studies, that specifically highlights health seeking behaviors engaged by expectant and postpartum parents and their interaction with coping and support services thru a viewpoint of healthcare professionals (HCPs).