By Penny and Melissa
This Sunday people across the country will be celebrating their mothers (birth, adoptive, step…) grandmothers and for those of us lucky enough, women to whom we have looked to influence our own mothering.
As with many things in life, we don’t necessarily understand and appreciate many things until it is our turn to experience them ourselves. Parenting and mothering in particular, is one of those things.
Memories of our mothers traditionally are viewed through our own lens; we think of all the times they helped us with our homework, sewed our new Halloween costume, breastfed us while caring for an older sibling, got three meals to the table 7 days a week and always made a homemade birthday cake. The list could go on and on.
But as a parent ourselves, we then also see it through a haze of exhaustion and worry and a real statistical possibility of post-partum mood changes. For many women, the stigma of experiencing a mental health issue means that the depression goes unrecognized, unreported and untreated. It also means that the very source of important social supports for women-her family and friends, are absent.
A woman with postpartum depression may regard her child with ambivalence, negativity or disinterest. An adverse effect on the bonding between mother and child may result. Estimates of its occurrence range from 4% – 13%, and there is general agreement that this number is under-reported. Although data from 2005 has shown that women with one or more risk factors have a statistically increased chance of developing postpartum depression, in general, its incidence cuts across racial, cultural and economic and age boundaries. Today, in Canada we are lucky that the growing awareness and understanding about mental health is growing. Don’t be afraid to reach out if you think someone is struggling. And don’t be afraid to ask them twice, and let them know that there is help available.
In honour of the wonderful, strong, and caring women in our lives and those far away, we ask you to join us and take a few moments to reflect on the unseen difficulties of motherhood.
The Health Nexus team wants to wish all mothers a very happy mother’s day!
And if you are looking for bilingual resources on topics related to maternal health and maternal mental health we suggest you visit:
http://beststart.org/resources/ppmd/index.html
http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/fact_sheets.asp?cID=4007
http://www.camh.net/Publications/CAMH_Publications/Postpartum_Depression/

