Each year in May, women's magazines pull out all the stops to write about moms, moms, moms. The best moms in the world, the best mom gifts, what moms need to know, mom tips, mom, mommy, mama, momma, mommie dearest, mom-mommy-mommy all the time. Something to draw moms in and sell lots of copies.
Vogue's entry into this field this month is a story on the dangers of using antidepressants during pregnancy. They use the words "SHOCKING TRUTH" on the cover in reference to this story, to titillate and sell more covers of course.
Dear Katherine,
I enjoyed Lauren's response piece and was thankful for her brutally honest sharing of her experience, especially with her pregnancy with Charlotte.
Yesterday I wrote about my experience with anti-depressants/psychiatric meds in honor of my completion of that portion of my treatment for my postpartum reaction. You can check it out here.. .http://atlantappdmom.blogspot.com/2009/05/senza-medicina.html
Thanks again for all you do…I am looking forward to Sunday!
I happened to read the Vogue article while at the hair salon. I felt fairly neutral about it until the ending quote– that the mom who took Paxil decided, upon reflection, that she hadn't really needed it. The entire point of the article, apparently, was to scare women into questioning their decision to take meds during pregnancy.
Now, I agree that pregnant women have a special set of concerns, and my heart goes out to the woman whose son was born with a heart defect. But I feel this article sends a dangerous message to moms with more severe forms of mental illness (like the one that sent me to the hospital days after my daughter's birth). Antidepressants may be overprescribed to women who don't need them, but they are also underprescribed to women who are too scared to admit how bad things are getting. My medications aren't a lifestyle enhancement; they enable me to have a normal life. I am truly scared for any seriously depressed woman reading that article and thinking, "I am a bad person for needing these pills, and the only answer is to stop needing them."
BTW the article only discussed SSRIs, and fails to mention that tricyclic antidepressants have better safety records for pregnancy. They are a viable option for many women, including me.
you should really stick to natural remedies for pain and depression especially when you are pregnant
I read the Vogue article and found it one-sided, sensationalistic, and irresponsible. It does not provide any up-to-date research. If it did, it would cite the numerous studies that show no difference in the rate of birth defects between babies born to women on SSRI's. The authors of the Vogue article also do not consider the risk of leaving women untreated during pregnancy. Are we to totally ignore the risk of maternal suicide, just to avoid fetal exposure to medication? I truly hope that no mothers choose to discontinue their medication against their physician's advice, just because of Vogue's ridiculous article. It could lead to real tragedy.