Someone told a mom in the Postpartum Progress community the other day that there is no longer any stigma when it comes to postpartum depression. We’re talking about it. We’re doing things about it. Moms need to realize that the stigma has abated! This mom reached out to me because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The person who had said that in her presence was a person in a position of leadership, a person with a lot of knowledge about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. A person who should have known better.
Here at Postpartum Progress we talk to moms from around the US and around the world every day. We know how much the stigma of postpartum depression and related illnesses persists. And worse, we know how much that stigma scares moms and makes them afraid to reach out for the treatment that can help them.
Today I was fortunate to be part of a Twitter chat with the March of Dimes focusing on postpartum depression in NICU moms. Imagine my surprise when a chat that was supposed to help raise awareness and provide support to mothers ended up creating stigma.
Someone officially representing the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, tweeted the following: “In the United States, postpartum depression is one of the leading causes of murder of children less than one year of age.”
I was stunned. I took a screen capture of the tweet, because I was convinced no one would believe me that a statement like that would be made. It’s not correct. It’s unbelievably stigmatizing. And it came from people responsible for health in our own government. People who should definitely know better.
Okay? Trigger warning commenced. Okay.
According to the National Center for Vital Statistics, here are the top 10 leading causes of death of children from 0 to age 1 in the year 2013 (none of these, you’ll notice, is homicide):
- Birth defects (congenital anomalies)
- Short gestation
- Maternal pregnancy complications
- SIDS
- Unintentional injury
- Placenta & cord issues
- Bacterial sepsis
- Respiratory distress
- Circulatory system disease
- Neonatal hemorrhage
According to the CDC, there were 23,440 deaths of children between the ages of 0 and 1 in 2013. Their data shows that a total of 282 of those 2013 deaths were homicides, but the data doesn’t drill down any further to offer information about who the perpetrator of the crimes may have been. If you read the infanticide report from Child Trends, a nonprofit nonpartisan research center, however, studies suggest that male caretakers are the perpetrators of the majority of infant homicides.
We can’t ignore, of course, that there is a 4% infanticide rate for women who experience postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis occurs in approximately 1 in 1,000 mothers. Postpartum depression, on the other hand, occurs in 1 in 7 mothers. Thankfully infanticide due to psychosis is rare. It is a very serious illness that can lead a mom to suffer from delusions and/or hallucinations that may lead her to do things she would never otherwise do. This is why it’s so important that we take good care of these moms and that they get the professional medical care they need and deserve… something that is not happening in a lot of places.
Moms with postpartum depression are not likely to harm their kids. That’s the truth. But the fear that they will, or could, is one of the things that makes them afraid to reach out for help. This is what makes them keep their thoughts and feelings to themselves, rather than tell another person. This is why that tweet matters. Because we want women who are struggling to reach out as soon as possible. The sooner they get help the sooner they get better, and that has a big positive impact on both mom’s and baby’s health.
The tweet has since been taken down. That’s important, and we’re glad. It’s a start. But just taking it down doesn’t address what led someone in Health & Human Services to think it was correct and should be shared in the first place. How do we as a community make sure that there is a better understanding of the facts of maternal mental health, and a better understanding of and how to communicate with moms that postpartum depression is common and that it’s important to get help? As the executive director of Postpartum Progress, I have reached out to the Office of Women’s Health and asked them to call us back. We know we can have a really great conversation together. We’ll let you all know what happens next.
This tweet is disturbing and upsetting to me as a former maternal child nurse and clinical social worker. I look forward to the follow-up. Mental illness carries stigma and we must try to eliminate stigma so people will seek help.
120% unacceptable. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention and for correcting them. That is appalling.
It’s obvious that they made a mistake. They learned by taking the tweet down. Sometimes tweets can be taken out of content. I think you should have reach out to the Twitter account holder and talk to them first. In this country, we like to blame and point fingers and instead of sitting down and talking. It’s sad how one mistake can ruin a person’s life.
This is not at all about ruining anyone’s life. That is the last thing anyone would want. No one has called for anyone’s job, nor would they suggest it. Instead what we’re calling for is dialogue.
But, I strongly disagreed. You sent out another tweet. Your actions are speaking louder than your intent. So, you want a dialogue? Have you tried sending a DM to the account holder? Like I said earlier sit down first. Your approach of a dialogue is more like pointing fingers. If you sat down together first, you could have educate the individual. Perhaps afterwards work on an educational campaign. I noticed you contacted the women health office. Simply said, two wrongs don’t make a right. Sit first and talk….
We have moms on both Twitter and Facebook who were/are triggered by such a statement. Something needed to be said on their behalf.
When a government office such as HHS sends out such a polarizing, false, fearing message such as this – a statement has to be made loud and clear that it’s not fact. A message has to be put out that puts out those flames. Simply deleting the tweet doesn’t change the fact that that’s their message – and that’s what they are putting out as fact. It’s reckless.
Someone tweeting from an official government account has the responsibility to know true information, statistics, and facts BEFORE jumping into such a conversation. If a single individual had posted a remark like that, PPP could have responded and had a DM conversation. There might be a single individual behind a government Twitter account, but that job speaks for a whole agency and needs to think of that before they make ANY statements. Katherine writing this, tweeting, and sharing how inaccurate that statement is is not a “wrong” and she is doing right. So maybe YOU need to sit down.
So I realize that your comment, SitFirst, was sent from a Health & Human Services Department work computer, which means you may be someone who works with the person who sent the tweet. I think it’s very kind to defend your colleague and I support you in that. I will reiterate though that we weren’t calling out a single person. No one was named, no one asked or even suggested that someone’s job should be impacted. We were calling out a way of thinking, a stigma, one that is very important to bring out into the light, and we shared the facts and encouraged discussion with the Office of Women’s Health. This is the kind of work our organization has always done and will continue to do.
What interests us most is not the person who sent the tweet. What interests us is how the person got this information. Who gave it to him or her and why was it considered an important fact to share about postpartum depression? Or does HHS not care what is tweeted out on its behalf and did they send this person out in public without any information? Either way that’s not okay. This is an extremely important topic affecting hundreds of thousands of women. It matters.
So it seems to be more of a misunderstanding of postpartum depression and a lack of awareness of postpartum psychosis.
Yes and no. The statistics for the incidence and impact of postpartum psychosis were incorrect in addition to the inaccurate labeling of “postpartum depression.”
Also, the very language used in the tweet was stigmatizing. Mothers who suffer from postpartum psychosis that results in the death of a child are not “murderers.”
There were many things wrong with the tweet and language matters, especially to mothers who are considering asking for help.
When I was in the depths of Post Partum Depression, the most frightening thing was the thought that I might be declared an unfit mother and my child might be taken away. That thought was more powerful than any other feeling of despair or hopelessness (which is saying a LOT)- and it was only with the help of a very supportive partner that I had the courage to reach out for help. I am doing so much better now and I’m fighting hard to keep an open discussion going with other new mothers that I know. The stigma is real and frightening.
I have no vested interest in this but am an editor and former journalist and I think you have completely misunderstood the government’s tweet. It is not about the “death” of infants, but about the “murder” of infants. In cases of murder, which as you point out, is not among the top 10 causes of death, postpartum depression is a leading cause. You may take issue with why the govt tweeted about this and in this way, but your statistics and evidence do not refute what the govt tweeted. You are each talking about different things! Apples and oranges.
Postpartum depression does not cause the murder of infants. Postpartum PSYCHOSIS, on the other hand, can cause the DEATH of infants, but the use of the word murder assumes cognitive intent and mental stability.