Postpartum Depression In Mothers: Understanding The Outcomes, Social Factors, And Healthcare Models

Outcomes of Postpartum Depression

Postnatal depression is one of the most common mental disorders that affect women between one month and that of the one year after the birth of the baby. It affects for about one in every seven women who give birth in the nation of Australia every year. All mothers need to go through a period of adjustment, as they need to handle the huge changes in their lives that the bay brings with him (Law et al., 2018). This time of adjustment is usually temporary and is not usually overly distressing. This issue is named as “baby blues” and usually continues for 2 to 3 days. When mothers realize that similar feelings are lasting beyond the early days after the baby’s arrival and are continuing to get worse, it might prove to be signs of depression that requires support and treatment from professionals.

Outcomes of postpartum depression:

The outcome of postpartum disorders is detrimental not only on the quality of life of the mother but also affects the baby in various ways. When a woman suffers from postpartum depression, she might face difficulty in reacting to her child in appropriate manner. Studies are of the opinion that lack of appropriate interaction can affect the cognitive, behavioral, and physical development of the baby (Werner et al., 2015). Studies have found out that a mother who remain depressed in the first three months after the birth of the baby, their babies become more irritable, act in hostile manner and remain less engaged with the world around them and even shows less emotions than babies who mothers do not suffer from post-partum depression. Even cases are present which show that post-partum depression in mothers can result in post-partum psychosis that can even lead to infanticide (Woolhouse et al., 2015).

The generation that ensures equality of rights between both the genders has helped both males and females to participate in all activities. However, in case of motherhood, most of the responsibility comes upon the mother, as she is the immediate and primary caregiver of the child. Therefore, more than the father, mothers are held responsible for the well being and better physical and mental health development of the child. The males usually take upon the responsibility of maintaining the financial stability during this time putting the entire pressure on the mothers about rearing of the child (Law et al., 2018). The feeling of tackling the massive responsibility creates pressure on the mother making them suffer from depression. The feeling of less social support in case of many mothers had been also reported in the studies. The mothers are also seen to go through many physical changes in their bodies, which make them think that they can no longer look attractive and match to the expectations set up by societies about beauty of women. This is never the case of male genders, as males do not go through such feelings. Hence, social factors like this become contributors of depression. Many of the studies also suggest that low financial stability, high levels of stress, lack of support system, domestic violence and similar others are some of the social factors that affect the mental health of mothers making them suffer from depression (Wolhouse et al., 2016). Mothers also need to spend most of the times of the day with the children, as they remain mostly dependent on their mothers in the initial times. Therefore, they are often seen to fail to participate in social gathering and similar other events. This make them feel socially excluded. All these make them develop depression.  

Gender and Social factors determining the impact of the situation

Ecological model is one of the best healthcare behaviors models that can be followed by the healthcare professionals in order to help mothers overcome post-partum depression and live better quality lives. Some of the important aspects that need to be kept in mind while developing the interventions and strategies are:

• Consideration of the intrapersonal or the individual factors that affect the behaviors of the individuals like that of the knowledge, attitudes, personality and the behaviors
• Consideration of the interpersonal factors like that of the interactions with the other people that might be responsible for the social support as well as creation of the barriers for the interpersonal growth that promote healthy behaviors (Yim et al., 2015)
• Consideration of the institutional as well as the organizational factors that include regulations, riles, policies and even the different informal structures which might promote or constrain healthy behaviors
• Consideration of the different community factors like that of formal as well as informal social norms that are seen to exist between individuals, groups as well as organizations that can limit or enhance healthy behaviors (Forsyth et al., 2017)
• Different types of public policy factors that would contain the local, state, and federal policies and laws that regulate or support health actions and practices for mitigating the issues and prevent the mental health disease including early detection, control as well as management

• A health promotion program would be initiated with the name “Mother- the nurturer”. The first initiative that should be taken is the introduction of the screening session for the pregnant females in the primary healthcare centers in the gynecologist department. The screening session conducted by the nursing professionals in the gynecological unit of the centers would help to identify whether the mothers are suffering from peri-natal depression or whether they have the vulnerability of developing depression in the near future (Huddy et al., 2016). The mothers would be requested and appointments should be fixed for their visits every month until one year to find out their vulnerability in developing depression. Accordingly, they would be referred to the psychotherapists for further treatments
• Another initiative would be to develop the health literacy of the mothers. Therefore, before the birth of the babies as well as after the birth of the babies, the mothers would be requested to attend health education sessions in their community healthcare centers. Here they would be educated about the different symptoms of postpartum depression so that they can recognize successfully if they are victims of the disorder. Moreover, they would be also taught about the impacts of the depression on both their babies and themselves and how it affects their relationships (Woolhouse et al., 2016). This education session would be conducted by stalwart gynecologist and this would help in early intervention of the disorder
• Another important initiative would be to develop initiatives that would help in including the family members to support the mothers during the times of motherhood. The primary healthcare centers should send health educators to the houses of the mothers. They need to educate about the roles that need to be played by the different members of the family so that they can act as social supports to the mother and help to prevent development of depression and loneliness among the mothers (Poyatos et al., 2017). Different brochures and flyers would be developed as health education resources that can be followed by the family members to understand the dos and don’ts regarding their actions in front of the mother. It should have checklists that can help mothers to realize whether any of the symptoms of the cellists are present with them or not.
• Another initiative would be developing a social media group that would be by the name of “mother- the nurturer”. The respected healthcare professionals working in the gynecologist departments would govern this group. In this group, they would be advising the mothers with the different initiatives by which they can involve themselves in different entertaining activities while caring for their babies, helping in solving their queries, take appropriate steps in caring for their own health, maintain proper balance of every relationships and many others (Cooklin et al., 2015). Here the mothers can also engage in groups discussion session where they can learn from each other’s experiences and thereby not feel alone or hopeless about their own conditions.
• Another initiative would be advocating the issue to the local government and thereby assist the government in developing effective health policy that would help ti mitigate the issue. The policy would be acting as the guiding framework about the different steps they need to take for handling stressful situation and also mention about the supports and references that they can seek for when they need help (Riley et al., 2018). Eminent policy makers, healthcare professionals, social researchers, community healthcare centers, legal systems and many others would develop this policy. The policy would also involve successful funding initiatives for effective allocation of resources for the different initiatives to be taken by concerned authorities for the development of programs and many others.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be seen that postpartum depression is one of the most concerning issues faced by the mothers of the nation. This disorder results in not only poor quality life of the mothers but also affects the cognitive physical and emotional development of the child and also affects their relationship with their mothers and the outside world. Therefore, by following the ecological model of health promotion, initiatives need to be developed for them by professionals so that they can enjoy their motherhood and live quality lives.

References:

Cooklin, A. R., Amir, L. H., Jarman, J., Cullinane, M., Donath, S. M., & Castle Study Team. (2015). Maternal physical health symptoms in the first 8 weeks postpartum among primiparous Australian women. Birth, 42(3), 254-260.

Forsyth, J., Boath, E., Henshaw, C., & Brown, H. (2017). Exercise as an adjunct treatment for postpartum depression for women living in an inner city—a pilot study. Health care for women international, 38(6), 635-639.

Huddy, R. L., Torres, S. J., Milte, C. M., McNaughton, S. A., Teychenne, M., & Campbell, K. J. (2016). Higher adherence to the australian dietary guidelines is associated with better mental health status among australian adult first-time mothers. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(9), 1406-1412.

Law, K. H., Dimmock, J., Guelfi, K. J., Nguyen, T., Gucciardi, D., & Jackson, B. (2018). Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Maternal Self?Efficacy in First?Time Mothers: Modelling and Predicting Change across the First Six Months of Motherhood. Applied Psychology: Health and Well?Being.

Law, K. H., Jackson, B., Guelfi, K., Nguyen, T., & Dimmock, J. A. (2018). Understanding and alleviating maternal postpartum distress: Perspectives from first-time mothers in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 204, 59-66.

Poyatos?León, R., García?Hermoso, A., Sanabria?Martínez, G., Álvarez?Bueno, C., Cavero?Redondo, I., & Martínez?Vizcaíno, V. (2017). Effects of exercise?based interventions on postpartum depression: A meta?analysis of randomized controlled trials. Birth, 44(3), 200-208.

Riley, K., Gent, A., McLaren, S., Caunt, J., & Stavropoulos, V. (2018). The Fatigue and Depressive Symptom Relationship in Mothers of Young Children: the Moderating Role of Mindfulness. Mindfulness, 1-11.

Werner, E., Miller, M., Osborne, L. M., Kuzava, S., & Monk, C. (2015). Preventing postpartum depression: review and recommendations. Archives of women’s mental health, 18(1), 41-60.

Woolhouse, H., Gartland, D., Mensah, F., & Brown, S. J. (2015). Maternal depression from early pregnancy to 4 years postpartum in a prospective pregnancy cohort study: implications for primary health care. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 122(3), 312-321.

Woolhouse, H., Gartland, D., Mensah, F., Giallo, R., & Brown, S. (2016). Maternal depression from pregnancy to 4 years postpartum and emotional/behavioural difficulties in children: Results from a prospective pregnancy cohort study. Archives of women’s mental health, 19(1), 141-151.

Woolhouse, H., James, J., Gartland, D., McDonald, E., & Brown, S. J. (2016). Maternal depressive symptoms at three months postpartum and breastfeeding rates at six months postpartum: Implications for primary care in a prospective cohort study of primiparous women in Australia. Women and Birth, 29(4), 381-387.

Yim, I. S., Stapleton, L. R. T., Guardino, C. M., Hahn-Holbrook, J., & Schetter, C. D. (2015). Biological and psychosocial predictors of postpartum depression: systematic review and call for integration. Annual review of clinical psychology, 11.