Immigrants, refugees and women seeking asylum in Canada are four to five times more likely to suffer from postpartum depression than women born there, according to a study published this month in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

"Postpartum depression is more likely to be recognized in Canadian-born moms, but our study shows its much more common in immigrant women and they don’t seek help as much as the Canadian women do," said Dr. Donna Stewart, the principle author of the study.

She said the results of the study surprised her, considering a well-documented phenomenon known as the "healthy immigrant effect."

"Immigrants to Canada are much healthier than Canadian-born women, and there have been lots and lots of studies showing that, so from that perspective it did surprise me. From the perspective that it didn’t surprise me, as a clinician, I see a lot of foreign-born women who get depression after they have a baby. I also know from the public health nurses that they see them in the community and they’re not willing to come and seek services" …

"We find from the women that there’s the stigma of depression, that they’re frightened word will get around that they’re not good mothers, that their babies might be taken into care. We hear from the health care providers that they’re not quite sure what the customs are for these groups, sometimes the language is an impediment, and sometimes they feel that the families don’t want these women to seek care."

Stewart said the high incidence of postpartum is largely due to the lack of social support for newly arrived women.

"Their parents are often in their country of origin, their families are back in their country of origin and they may not have had time to make friends here yet. So I think they’re very isolated. And I think they often don’t know about social services that might be out there, how to meet other moms with young babies, and they also don’t know how to access health services very well" …

She said immigrant social services also need to become better educated, and more aware that when they see new, immigrant moms, that there is a greater risk of postpartum depression and to know some of the services they can be referred to.

"In many countries, depression isn’t talked about. So if you have someone coming from one of the far eastern countries, for example, where depression isn’t talked about very much and where it’s highly stigmatized, the service providers from that background may also not think to ask about it," Stewart said.