Women experiencing mental health issues before, during or after pregnancy may feel alienated and left alone to deal with emerging psychological issues. However it has recently become apparent that these issues are more common that mothers may expect.
Actually, 1 in 7 new mothers suffer from depression showing that there are actually nearly 10 million others that feel the same. This of course excludes that evasive dark figure; the population that do not come forward about their depression. 34% of mothers that admitted to their feelings on an online poll saying that they do not disclose their feelings to family and professionals in fear of their baby being taken away. Shockingly 40% of mothers that did express their feelings to their midwives did not receive any treatment despite the fact that a referral was promised. It is also revealed that less than half of midwives see the same woman each time and also 44% said there wasn’t enough time to discuss mental health during the appointments.
The above statistics may be alarming to many mothers and they may be asking themselves why it is so common for depression to develop around pregnancy? The obvious factor that people consider is the expected hormone imbalance. However there are many other factors that could make people more susceptible to mental health issues surrounding pregnancy; one being the amount of pressure mothers put on themselves to be the ideal ‘perfect parent.’ This fear of failure is supported by 22% of women from an online poll of 1,500 women with a further 21% feeling that they lacked emotional support.
It seems that there is a lot of pressure of becoming a mother which may be intensified by the hormone imbalance. Mothers need to remember that there is plenty of emotional support provided by advice agencies or even on the internet even if they cannot turn to their family or their midwife. There is no need to suffer in silence.