Today is International Women's Day. So let's talk about a significant health problem for the female population: postpartum depression.
We know that postpartum depression and other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are common. We know they are fully treatable. We know that there are significant adverse impacts on both mother and baby when these illnesses are not treated. YET, only 15% of sufferers receive treatment in the US. (God knows how much higher that number is in other countries.)
Despite all the talk, it seems to me that postpartum depression is rarely on the women’s health radar screen, and when it is, it’s always at the bottom of the to-do list.
Just take a look at America's Healthy People 2020. Improving the identification and treatment of postpartum depression is not an objective of this major public health initiative. You won’t find PPD under the topic “Mental Health & Mental Disorders” or under the topic “Maternal, Infant & Child Health” (MICH). In fact, if you look up the subtopic of “postpartum health & behavior,” the only objectives listed are to reduce postpartum relapse of smoking (MICH-18) and to increase the proportion of women who attend a postpartum care visit (MICH-19). Seriously?! Or consider the widely-reported-on National Report Card on Women’s Health, in which there is no mention of perinatal mental health or postpartum depression at all, and only one (very flimsy) indicator of women’s mental health as a whole.
Did you know that specialized training in reproductive psychiatry is almost non-existent? Currently there is only one fellowship offered at U.S. medical schools for women’s mental health. Did you know that in areas of poverty or rural locations, women have limited access to psychiatric services or support groups of any kind, much less people who have received training on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders? Did you know that you can count on one hand the number of specialized inpatient units in the United States for the treatment of women with severe perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including postpartum psychosis?
New families are created every day in the United States and we are not doing nearly enough to ensure they are starting off on the right foot when it comes to emotional health. There are a lot of people trying. There are a lot of disparate programs. But we're not doing enough, and we're not doing enough together. That's not okay with me.
Happy IWD to you Katherine. You do so much! Thank you.
I agree. Every women needs to take good care of their selves.
I also feel like a bad mother because my parents have guardship of my 2son’sand I have sole custody because My ex-husband gave me tramic brain Injury by pushing me in the back of the head and I have epilepsy since I was 10years old I also have PSTD because of all this but feel like a horriable Mother again because someone keeps telling me I am but I love my boys how do I not feel or stop feeling like a terrible mother again
Ann, I’m so sorry you’ve gone through all of this. It sounds like you could really use some therapy. Counseling is very important for working through these feelings. I’m sending you peace.
I need help from everyone who is a mother and feels horrible ashamed about there own children that got molested and wasn’t there for there children at the time they were now people telling them they were or r the worst parent in the world