The Post-Postpartum Depression Blog

As a therapist who treats women with perinatal depression, I am an enthusiastic supporter of individuals or institutions that want to help the world understand the illness and to make a contribution to what we already know.

Over the past decade, I have often participated as a dissertation committee member on numerous research projects related to perinatal emotional disorders.

That’s why I was pleased to learn that a Winnipeg researcher is reaching out to mothers “who are depressed, down or overwhelmed” so she can interview them for a study she is undertaking.

This thesis project for Michelle Choch, a PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba, is intended to “empower mothers and their families and healthcare providers.”

Wisely, the Manitoba Health Research Council is funding Choch’s project, which will study the period immediately after the child is born, as well as mothers with older children.

In an interview, Choch referred to the “unique aspects of it [postpartum depression] and what moms experience.” The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) added that the disorder could not only impact women who have previously had children, but also adoptive mothers.

Choch believes that learning and understanding what the experience can be like during the different stages of motherhood will enhance understanding not only for mothers, but also for their families, and the healthcare community.

It appears that prevention is one of the outcomes Choch hopes the study will focus on. She said, “Some of the aspects of the study will also help to… understand the vulnerabilities and the risk factors. So that there can be a better sense of what you can do to prepare and think about and the types of assumptions that we make before we become mothers, to try and prevent some of that maladjustment that occurs.”

I particularly like the phrase, “types of assumptions” that Choch brings up in her comments. For it’s my opinion that our expectations, various myths about motherhood, and what we believe society tells us– what a “good mother” looks like, are all contributors to postpartum depression and anxiety.

If this study, and others like it, can provide realistic views into the experience of women who are considering pregnancy, are pregnant, or have given birth, perhaps the numbers of cases will decline. One can only hope.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/u-of-m-researcher-looking-for-moms-with-postpartum-depression-1.3036097

~ by ppdsus on April 26, 2015.

Posted in baby blues, fertility and depression, maternal mental illness, media attention on maternal mental illness, myths of mental illness, National women's initiatives, new moms adjustment, Paternal Postnatal Depression, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, postpartum depression, pregnancy and perinatal mood disorders, subsequent postpartum illness, Support for postpartum moms, supporting depressed spouses & partners, Use of Facebook for identifying postpartum depression, worldwide treatment of maternal depression
Tags: depression and anxiety disorders, fertility issues and depression, Inspirational stories & positive changes, National women's initiatives, new parents adjustment, Paternal Postnatal Depression, perinatal disorders, postpartum depression, stigma of mental health, women's mental health